


What if I still love you?

by Rustygirl2814



Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Alya Césaire and Nino Lahiffe Ship It, Angst, Confused Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, F/M, Fluff, Gabriel Agreste | Papillon | Hawk Moth Redemption, How Do I Tag, Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug Is So Done, Oblivious Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reunions, slowburn
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-14
Updated: 2021-02-16
Packaged: 2021-03-03 21:41:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 24,522
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24712507
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rustygirl2814/pseuds/Rustygirl2814
Summary: After not seeing his friends in over a year, how will they react when Adrien doesn't tell anyone he is back in Paris? Especially now that Marinette has 'gotten over her crush' and now works with his father. When Marinette is tasked with designing for this year's showcase, she is determined to make the most out of the opportunity.I'm not really good with synopsis'. I guess you will just have to read to find out what happens 😅
Relationships: Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir & Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Adrien Agreste | Chat Noir/Marinette Dupain-Cheng | Ladybug, Alya Césaire/Nino Lahiffe, past Adrien/kagami, past Marinette Dupain-Cheng/Luka Couffaine
Comments: 42
Kudos: 101





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you to Siwar_Cat who is the beta reader for this fic. You have been a huge help!

Marinette Dupain-Cheng was on her way out of her apartment as her phone rang. She fumbled around frantically as she tried to pick it up and hit the answer button. Only to be greeted by her best friend, Alya Césaire, screeching in her ear.

“Hey, Aly-” 

“-OMG, girl! You never told me that Gabriel Agreste is hosting this year’s fashion showcase!" Cutting Marinette off. "This is a _huge_ deal for you, and you’ve been holding out on me!” Alya shouted. 

Marinette just rolled her eyes at her best friend's antics. She had known about the showcase _and_ the ball that was being held after it for a couple of months, but Gabriel Agreste himself had made her, along with the other workers at his brand, promise not to tell as soul. He hadn’t wanted the press to catch wind of the event and hassle him over the details that weren’t even planned out yet.

‘Of course I know about it, I do work there don’t I?’ She could tell Alya was frustrated but there wasn’t much she could do.

‘I’ve known for a couple of months now, Alya. I just wasn’t allowed to say anything, although I can tell you that Gabriel Agreste personally asked _me_ to sketch some designs for him. He’ll choose the best dress and suit from the sketches and they’ll be featured at the showcase! I even get to wear the dress!’ she was jumping up and down now, eyes twinkling. The passersby giving her looks of both exasperation and amusement. 

Alya squealed ‘I’m so proud of you, Mari! This is even bigger than I thought!’ all frustration was forgotten as she screeched into the phone again.

"Okay, okay. Now, onto the other reason for why I called. Nino and I haven’t seen you in ages, girl! So, I was thinking that since the showcase isn’t for a few months now, and both Nino and I have time off this weekend. You could go to a restaurant with Nino and me, cause god knows we need a break, and so do you”. Marinette was just about to pull out of her car spot when Alya finished her speech which was halfway between a plea and a demand. 

"I don’t know, Alya. I have all this work to get ready, not to mention every time I go out with both you and Nino, I always end up being the third wheel". Marinette huffed with annoyance, but the amusement in her voice betrayed her. 

"Nope, you are _not_ backing out of this. You need a break, and anyway I have you covered, you won’t be the third wheel, so don’t worry" Alya assured her. 

"What is that supposed to mean? You better not be trying to set me up on another one of those dates. You _know_ those never work out". As she pulled up to her parking lot at the studio, her phone pinged with a message. "Also, I’ve gotta go, so I’ll talk to you later. Don’t get any bright ideas, okay?"

“Don't worry, girl. I'm not trying to set you up, but I've got a surprise for you on Saturday. I think you're gonna love it, I'll text you the time and address okay?" Her giggles were doing nothing to reassure Marinette but only furthering the suspicion that whatever she had planned was probably going to be embarrassing, traumatizing or both. 

"Alright, then I’ll see you on Saturday, I guess". The call ended just as her phone pinged again, signifying she had another message. Typing in the passcode, she unlocked it to find two unread messages from Nathalie. 

**_Good morning, Gabriel wishes to see you as soon as you arrive to discuss matters regarding the showcase. Please do not be late._ **

**_And bring your designs, as he will be choosing the best ones for further development._ **

Marinette took a deep breath and stepped into the building. Everywhere she looked, people were rushing in and out of the large glass doors. The building itself was quite bare, with white walls and little greenery. You would think one of the largest fashion empires would have a few paintings and decor in their headquarters, but no. The everyday decor and pristine state of the lobby tended to be unnerving.

This was the same for most of the building, except for the individual offices. Those were decorated by the employee and usually were not as clean, with material and papers scattered everywhere. 

Marinette’s office was no exception when she walked in to retrieve the requested designs. Her walls were adorned with pictures of family and friends, as well as an idea board. Two dress mannequins stood in the corner of the room next to a large window. The walls were still a stark white, but the office was like a second home to her. It was somewhere she could express herself and create clothes that people would someday want to wear. 

That dream was coming closer and closer the more she worked at _Gabriel_ , especially now that she got to design pieces for a major showcase where big designers will judge her work. But what if they hate it? What if she failed so badly that Gabriel fires her blacklists from the fashion industry forever?! She’d be a failure and have to work at the bakery for the rest of her life and end up dying alone!

"Miss Dupain-Cheng, Gabriel Agreste is ready to see you now," Marinette was interrupted mid freakout by Nathalie, gesturing to Mr. Agreste's office door. It seemed she had not been paying attention, as she walked down the hall during said freakout and had arrived at Gabriel’s office without even noticing.

Marinette took another minute to compose herself as Nathalie opened the door. She stepped into the dimly lit office, the space occupied by a large desk with an office chair and two more chairs in front of the desk. 

Like most offices, there were papers scattered on the table and a laptop, but apart from that, the walls were bare of photos or sketches, the floor was immaculately clean and free of fabric pieces. Though the figure she was most focused on was the tall man at its center.

“Mr. Agreste, you wished to see me?” Marinette mumbled, looking down at her feet

“Ah yes, Miss Dupain-Cheng, please have a seat,” he said, gesturing towards one of the chairs.

She hurried over to one of the guest chairs while nervously fidgeting with the hem of her blouse. Her stomach was churning, and she felt nauseous. She felt a bit of increased pressure from her purse at her leg, Tikki's attempt at comforting her, and she managed to pull it together. 

Gabriel watched her place the folder of sketches onto the table before sitting down.

"I wanted to discuss your sketches with you as the showcase is now in two months. I trust these are the designs I asked for?"

"Yes sir, there are six designs in there. Three dresses and three suits that are all developed sketches with fabric choices, measurements, colours and target audiences," she said, her nerves increasing tenfold. 

"Excellent work,” Gabriel said after a thorough examination of the sketches. “I can see the detail you put into these. Although, dress two and suit three are best. They will be the ones on display at the showcase. I hope you will not take this lightly Miss Dupain-Cheng; not many junior designers get such opportunities". 

Marinette couldn’t believe it, her childhood idol was praising her designs! And she wasn’t fired! She wasn’t sure if this day could get any better.

"Of course, Mr Agreste. I will always strive to do my best and am eternally grateful for the faith you put in me". Before she turned to leave, he spoke again. 

"One more thing, Miss Dupain-Cheng, one of my models is returning to the business, and I would like him to wear the suit, although the details are not yet finalised, so I cannot disclose who, but you will be able to start working with him as soon as they are". 

Smiling wide, Marinette thanked him again and headed for the door. Once on the other side, she breathed out a sigh of relief and opened her purse to find a grinning Tikki. 

"I’m so proud of you, Marinette, I could tell you were nervous, but you did so well!” 

"Thanks, Tikki, I wonder who this ‘returned’ model is.” Looking down at her phone and noticing it was 10am she turned back to Tikki.

“Well, I sure have a lot of work to do,” she said and continued toward her office.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> What has Adrien been up to since graduation? Nino and Alya are still acting suspiciously. Adrien has a one-sided conversation with Gabriel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to my beta reader for this chapter Khanofallorcs!

Beep! Beep! Beep!

A groan echoed in the apartment where a sleepy Adrien Agreste reached over to his phone and hit the snooze button. 

He was just about to return to his blissful sleep when Plagg’s voice startled him again, "Hey kid, wake up you’ve got that meeting with your father in an hour". 

With another groan Adrien slammed a pillow on his face, the last thing he wanted to do was have a meeting with his father at 10 am on a Wednesday morning. Maybe he could just hide here and hopefully, his father would forget he existed. 

It might have worked, but there was one problem. Nathalie definitely wouldn’t forget. 

Swinging his legs over the double bed, Adrien stumbles over to his bedroom ensuite and splashes freezing cold water on his face (he forgot it was winter and that the tap water was just above freezing point!). He could hear cackling coming from the other side of the room but blatantly chooses to ignore it and instead heads to the kitchen for some much-needed coffee and breakfast. 

He was half-way through cooking eggs when his phone started vibrating on the table. 

“Hey Vdri-n, buff-le voy vs fall-vn voo”, Plagg floats over with Adrien’s phone and a mouth full of camembert. Adrien snatches the phone back from the Kwami. 

“His name is Nino not ‘bubble boy’ and what did I tell you about getting your stinky cheese on my phone” Adrien scolded. Plagg just rolls his eyes as Adrien answers the phone. “Hey, dude, what’s up?”.

“ _Don’t ‘hey dude’ me!_ you never told me you were coming home early!” Nino exclaimed, not quite yelling. “Alya and I found out you were home because of some photos posted on Instagram, and you _know_ how Alya is”, Adrien did know how Alya is and was definitely glad he wasn't there when she found out.

“She blamed me and started yelling _‘why_ didn’t he call, Nino! You are meant to be his best friend! Did you know and didn’t tell me!’ I swear she thinks this is some plot against her”. Nino was doing a terrible impression of his girlfriend’s voice as Adrien was finding it hard to not burst out into hysterical laughter at his friends' antics. 

“I promise you I didn’t plan it, Nino. I _just_ got off the plane last night after my father requested, more like demanded, to have a meeting with me in person for God knows what reason. He could have waited the two weeks I had left to travel but you know how he is. I know I should have called but it was super last minute”. 

“Fine dude but to make it up to us, we are all going to hang out on Saturday and there is _no_ getting out of it. Alya will personally knock you out and drive you to the restaurant herself if she has to and to confirm this she is sitting right next to me nodding”. Another groan escaped the ex-model’s lips, he knew how brutal Alya could get but he didn’t want to be the third wheel again. He got enough of that all through school. 

“Come on, I don't want to be the third wheel. As long as that doesn’t happen, I'm in. After all, I might need to get my mind off of everything after talking with my father tonight. So just text me the details, I gotta get ready”. With his breakfast and coffee made but just sitting on the table, Adrien was about to sit down and eat but would rather not have a mouth full of food while talking.

“Alright my guy, you’ll be fine and hey, don’t worry Alya has a plan so you won’t have to be a third wheel. No questions though, it's meant to be a surprise”. Facepalming, Adrien knew exactly what his long-time friends were planning. 

“Please, please, pleeease don’t set me up on a date. It will not end well, it has never ended well with the people you have tried to set me up with”. Plagg could still be heard from the other side of the table, seeming to enjoy listening in to the conversations and laughing with big audible gasps. Stupid kwami. 

“No, we are not trying to set you up. I said it is a surprise and I know you're going to _love_ it’ he said, putting emphasis on ‘love’. “Okay, I’m gonna let you get ready, so see ya on Saturday, and good luck with your old man by the way”. 

“That’s totally reassuring, and thanks I’m going to need it” And with that, the phone went silent. Looking back at the screen to check the time. It was a 20-minute drive minimum and he only had 30 minutes left to get ready. "Shit" was all he could

Breakfast abandoned, Adrien ran for his closet and pulled out an outfit that his father wouldn’t completely disown him for. 

He took a quick shower, got dressed and poured the coffee into a travel mug. Plagg flew into his shirt pocket and Adrien ran out the door nearly forgetting to grab his keys.

* * *

Walking into the _Gabriel_ headquarters after parking his car, Adrien Agreste was greeted by a receptionist who hadn’t looked up from the computer monitor. Her name tag said ‘Lisa’. 

“Name”, Lisa still hadn’t looked up from the monitor. 

“Adrien Agreste, I’m here to see my father. I have an appointment for 10”. Adrien put on an award-winning smile as Lisa finally looked up from the screen with a shocked expression.

“Mr. Agreste, I’m so sorry. You can head on up and Nathalie will meet you there’. 

“Thank you”, he replied with a tight-lipped smile. He really hated being called Mr. Agreste, it made him sound much older than he really is. He had only just turned 20 after all. 

Waiting at the set of double elevators, Adrien just caught a flash of raven hair exiting the left elevator as he entered the one on the right-hand side and the doors closed. Something about those pigtails seemed so familiar, he thought but chose to brush it off. 

Stepping out of the elevator and heading towards his father's office, Plagg stuck his head out of Adrien's shirt pocket. 

“Hey kid, good luck. I know how stressed you get when Gabriel is involved”. Adrien just gaped at the little god who had started purring. He knew Plagg had never liked his father but showing any acknowledgement of human emotions was so uncharacteristic of him. 

“Thanks, Plagg”. With a slight nod, the Kwami dashed back Into Adrien’s pocket, the only evidence of the conversation being the little purrs vibrating near his heart. 

With newfound energy he continued on towards the office, only stopping when he stood in front of Nathalie. Stoic as ever, Nathalie didn’t greet him but simply acknowledged his existence with “Your father just finished his meeting so you can go in now’. 

“Thank you, Nathalie’. He gave his long-time caretaker a genuine smile and nod before knocking on Gabriel’s door, hearing the ‘come in’ and pushing the door open. The first thing he noticed was the man himself, tall and brooding, wearing a designer suit. The pristine state of the office was just as unnerving as the rest of the building, with nothing apart from a stack of papers as well as a few pencils and pens to cover the desk. 

“Father, you wanted to see me?” Adrien slowly approached the desk as Gabriel lifted his head to meet the younger Agreste’s eyes.

“Ah yes, Adrien. Thank you for coming on such short notice, I understand you were overseas and were not due for another two weeks”. Adrien just gaped at his father. The last time they had talked had been less than civil. Adrien had wanted to move out of the mansion, travel for a year, then eventually attend university.

But most of all he wanted freedom. 

Gabriel wasn’t at all happy with this decision, wanting to keep Adrien under his thumb for as long as possible. In the end, Adrien had grabbed everything he could from his room and left to go stay a few nights at the Lahiffe household. After that, Adrien had travelled around the world while leaving Paris in the capable hands of Ladybug and the other holders. Rena and Carapace had become permanent holders, while whenever Ladybug really needed help, he would use the horse Miraculous she had trusted him with to go back and forth. 

Gabriel’s voice shook him out of his thoughts. “I have a proposal for you and I hope that you will at least consider it”. Confused, Adrien reluctantly nodded. 

“As you probably know by now, the showcase is coming up in two months”, again Adrien nodded. “For my side of the proposal, I wish for you to return to the brand as not only a model but also to learn how to run the business. This will mean that I will personally teach you the different aspects of _Gabriel_ and you will also shadow some of the employees”.

Adrien was already about to shut down the idea completely. Gabriel must have noticed this and raised his hand to stop the interruption. “Just let me finish. If you accept, this will only be for three days a week and photoshoots will be only when necessary as well as you will attend events such as the showcase”. Still put-off by the idea, Adrien remained silent.

“Vacation days will be available to you just like any other employee and as such you will also be paid for the work you do. Now, for your side of the proposal”. This time, Gabriel stood and handed Adrien a contract with the proposal outline. 

“As you will only be working three days a week, which will be on Sunday, Monday and Tuesday. I will pay for you to do a University course of your own choice, all expenses paid. This will also leave Saturdays open for you to spend with friends or whatever you choose to do with your time”. Adrien gaped at his father again. “As well, when the time comes, you will get to choose whether or not you want to inherit the business or continue your own career path”. 

His mind was running a hundred miles an hour. The most prominent thought was ‘there is a _but_ coming, there has to be’ and ‘are you sure you want to work with your father?’ as well as ‘it has to be some sort of joke and “Gabriel” will turn out to be some sort of changeling that looks like your father’; that last thought was a lot less probable. 

Gobsmacked, Adrien was still standing there as Gabriel tried to snap him back into reality. “I hope you will consider the proposal although I would like an answer by Monday next week as we need to start the preparations for the showcase. I have a specific designer in mind whom I would like you to work with”. 

Sensing the meeting was over, Adrien turned to head straight for the door. 

“Oh and Adrien”, Turning his head over his shoulder to look at his father. He was yet again surprised when Gabriel said: “It’s good to see you son”.

With a slight smile, Adrien replied with a small “you too father” then left. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the warm reception the last chapter got! I'm glad you guys liked it. It might not seem like 100+ hits and 10+ kudos is a big deal but to me it is. Also, sorry that it ended up being two weeks. I hope you enjoyed this chapter too but both of these chapters and also the next one is me trying to build up to something. Next chapter is LadyNoir! (kinda)


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was incredibly fun to write and I couldn't wait to post it so here it is! 
> 
> Also, thank you Siwar_Cat for beta reading!

Marinette had spent all of Thursday rushing around in a panic, trying to find a supplier or suppliers that had the material she needed in stock so she could start on the dress and suit for the showcase. When Marinette got home, she had completely forgotten that it was her turn for patrol, until the alarm on her phone went off.

Ever since Chat Noir had left just over a year ago, Hawkmoth seemed to have decreased the amount of Akumas he released. The downside to that though is that the Akuma seem to be more powerful and take longer to defeat whenever they do make an appearance. 

That’s why Ladybug permanently gave Alya and Nino their Miraculous while Chat wasn’t as active. After trying to defeat a few Akuma by herself, she realised that she needed back up. Although, they had to alter the appearance of their costumes to make it look like they were new heroes since their identities had been discovered. Using her Miraculous, Alya occasionally used mirage to place her and Carapace’s civilian selves at the scene so no one would suspect it was still them. 

It helped that as they had gotten older they have gradually been able to hold their transformations longer as well as cast multiple special abilities without having to transform back. 

Patrol wasn’t necessarily mandatory, they rarely even found an Akuma while doing them, but it was nice to show the city that they still cared. That, as well as they occasionally helped the police with robberies and hostage situations. 

So, as a rush of pink enveloped Marinette, her yoyo string wrapped around the nearest lamp post and with a _zip, and_ she was flung off her apartment balcony.

Even though Marinette was exhausted, this was her favourite time to patrol. The sunset cast an ethereal glow over the city, and small lights flickered in the windows while the smell of food was carried by the wind from nearby buildings. 

People were rushing to get home but stopped when they saw a familiar flash of red or her yoyo’s sound. She too stopped and waved at them with a warm smile. 

Nearing the end of patrol, Ladybug sat on the Eiffel Tower’s ledge, not quite at the top but high enough that passersby wouldn’t see her. She relaxed with her legs swinging over the edge, talking in the crisp air and the stillness of the night for the first time in only God knows how long. It was like her own little bubble; no interruptions, no one for her to save, just her and her thoughts. With her notepad spread against her lap, she began to draw whatever came to her mind but was inspired by the blush pinks and vibrant oranges of the sunset. Just as a knee-length skirt began to take shape on the page a light echo of metal hitting the tower bars rang out. 

Startled, Ladybug jumped up and flung herself to face the intruder. 

* * *

Adrien had spent the entire afternoon cooped up in his apartment while trying and failing to make a decision about the proposal. 

Sure, he desperately needed a job now that he was back in Paris, his savings could only stretch so far until he turned 21. Then he would be able to access the trust fund his mother had left him. The proposal seemed to be a fair one, one that would set him up possibly for life which, included any plans to create a future with someone. 

“ _Kid”_

Father _was_ handing him his future on a silver platter, but at the same time, he was unsure if it would be a wise decision to accept when it could put him back under Gabriel’s thumb. 

“ _Kid!”_

There was the potential problem that if Adrien ever slipped up and made a mistake, or even made a decision that Father didn’t approve of, then Gabriel could just as easily take everything away from him. 

It was this thought that had Adrien pacing around the living room muttering to himself. 

_“Adrien!”_ His thoughts were interrupted by Plagg shouting in his ear.

“I have tried to get your attention three times now. You're starting to freak me out.” Adrien was touched by Plagg’s concern, although he could have done without the yelling.

Walking over to where his Kwami was snuggled into the laundry hamper, Adrien sighed. “Sorry, Plagg, it’s just what my father said really has me going around in circles. I have no idea what I’m going to say to him on Monday.” 

Adrien started scratching behind the little Kwami’s ears, and if he heard a soft purr rumbling, he didn’t say anything.

 **“** Stop overthinking everything and just eat some cheese, it’ll solve all of your problems.” Plagg started waving a slice of Camembert near Adrien’s face.

With a disgusted scoff, Adrien waves away his attempt at comfort. He stood up, then walked over to the window just as a flash of red zipped past his apartment. 

He stood, stunned, as he watched Ladybug swing from building to building with practiced ease. All he wanted to do was transform and chase after her like they had done so many times before over the years. But he couldn’t.

Adrien hadn’t had a full-on conversation with her in well over a year. Sure they had briefly talked during brutal Akuma attacks where he had to use the horse Miraculous, but he always had to leave straight after, lest anyone notice his sudden disappearance. 

Ladybug had tried to contact him on multiple occasions, wanting to get him to stay but, it had been difficult enough leaving in the first place. He had tried and basically succeeded in moving on from her but there were always lingering ‘ _what if’s_ ’ at the back of his mind. That is what makes seeing her so difficult and it’s also the reason he has kept his distance.

“Hey kid, I think you should go for a run, get some fresh air. It might do you some good. Also, go talk to Ladybug.” Plagg had come over to watch Ladybug as well, floating just above Adrien’s ear. 

“I don’t think she will want to see me, Plagg, I haven’t talked to her in well over a year now. She is going to be furious if I just turn up out of the blue.” Adrien said while shaking his head and sighing, 

“I get that, but better rip the bandaid off now, rather than have her find out your back some other way. You're going to have to at least talk to her after the next Akuma, and I'm not gonna keep listening to you mope around for the next week so better to get it over with.”

He had to admit, Plagg had a point. “Alright fine, you have a point,” Adrien gave in with a sigh. 

“Of course I do,” the Kwami said smugly. 

“ _Plagg, claws out!”_ Adrien waited for the rush of his transformation to wash over him then leapt out the window, hoping Ladybug would stop soon so he could catch up while also hoping she wouldn’t. 

He vaulted up buildings, jumped over roofs, and after about an hour finally, he spotted her sitting perched on the Eiffel Tower’s bars. The closer he got to the tower, the more he felt the familiar flutter in his stomach, both from anticipation and feelings that never really disappeared. 

As Chat Noir approached the base of the tower, he extended his baton and landed on the same level Ladybug was perched on. The sound of his feet hitting metal echoes out across the tower, letting her know of his presence.

She abruptly flung herself around to meet his gaze, standing in a battle-ready stance. Her guard lowered once she noticed it was him, but what seemed like hundreds of emotions flickered across her face. 

Chat Noir just stood there, unable to find the words that would make up for avoiding her for so long. The silence was broken when she uttered just a single word, one felt like a physical blow. 

“ _Kitty?”_

* * *

The moment her gaze landed on him, Marinette couldn’t decide if she was ecstatic, relieved or furious. So she froze. 

They both stood there and she noticed how much he had changed. Chat’s hair was still tousled and wild but had grown out longer to just past his ears, his face had matured and his features were more defined. Even if she had never thought of him in a romantic sense before, she had to admit time had done him justice.

After what felt like hours she forced her voice to utter a single, broken word. 

“ _Kitty?”_ But It wasn’t enough to convey everything she was feeling, not _nearly_ enough. 

“Hey, Ladybug, long time no see.” He shined one of his award-winning smiles at her, and at that moment, her anger won out. 

Ladybug’s gloved hand connected with Chat’s cheek, and he took two shocked steps back. 

She saw the hurt reflected in his eyes, but she wasn’t done.

“Are you _serious!”_ Too angry to consider her words before they flew out of her mouth.

“You show up after over a _year_ of not talking to me and all you can say is _‘long time no see?’_ you have _got_ to be kidding me!” Ladybug was screaming now with fists clenched at her sides, and Chat must have noticed she wasn’t going to stop, so he stayed quiet. 

“What gives you the right to show up and act like nothing happened, like you haven’t ignored me every time I have tried to talk to you!? I’ve called you, messaged you, I even tried stopping you from leaving after Akuma battles, but you never even _acknowledged_ my existence except when necessary! We are meant to be partners, But we were also meant to be friends!” All of the pain, betrayal, anger and frustration Ladybug had felt toward Chat noir over the last year was pouring out of her. 

She paused to look back at him but was shocked at how much grief was reflected in his eyes, and tears began to pool in her own. She knew she had hurt him and not just physically either, it scared her how much a part of her wanted him to feel everything she had felt over the last year.

Ladybug took a deep breath in, she knew it was her anger talking and that she needed to calm down. 

Wrapping her hands around her waist, she began again. “I’m sorry, Chat. I don’t know where that came from. I should have never hit you and I’m _so_ sorry.” She sighed then wiped her tears away, looking down at the beam. “I just- I’m just so frustrated. Not just at you, but at myself for not trying hard enough to get you to talk to me, and for giving you a reason to avoid me in the first place.” 

This time, all of the bottled up emotions she had felt and gotten off her chest left in a rush and in its wake only a hollow emptiness remained.

“It wasn’t your fault.” 

Ladybug looked back up, Chat had taken several steps forward and was now within her reach. The grief from earlier hadn’t disappeared off his face but was paired with a stubborn resolve, one that in the past had only appeared in situations where she blamed herself for things having gone wrong. 

“It isn’t your fault that I have been avoiding you, and I admit that I have been. I am sorry for making you think that it was your fault when it _definitely_ was not. If you hear me out, I promise I will explain as much as I can without, you know, revealing my identity.”

With a sigh, Ladybug nodded. “Fine, but for the sake of our partnership, I hope it’s a good one.”

He went and sat on the beam next to her but didn’t start explaining until she had joined him. 

“Alright, so I’m sure you know, or at least guessed, that I haven’t had the best home life” She gave a slight nod, so he continued. “It wasn’t until I was around seventeen that I realized that myself. So, when I turned eighteen, I told my father that I wanted to make my own decisions, that because I was eighteen, he didn’t get to control me anymore. He wasn’t too pleased with this and threatened me, so I would have to stay, but I packed my bags and left anyway.”

“That was when I came to you and asked for the horse Miraculous, I wanted to travel, not only so I could get away from him for a while, but also so I could figure out who I was. I had spent so much time being what my family wanted me to be that I forgot how to be my own person. Being Chat Noir helped a lot when I was younger, but at the end of the day, I still have to have some kind of life outside of being a superhero.”

Ladybug bit her lip, trying to think of something to say. What do you say to someone who you thought you knew so well, but it turns out you really don’t know them at all?

“I’m sorry you had to go through this alone, and I’m sorry for not noticing earlier.” She spoke softly, ashamed that she hadn’t been there for him.

“It’s alright, as I said, it wasn’t your fault, but I asked for the horse Miraculous so that you wouldn’t be left alone to fight Hawkmoth. As for not being able to stay behind after battles, I realized that if I was gone longer than I had to be, people would start to notice I was missing. That’s not the only reason though.”

His soft emerald eyes turned toward her as he said, “During this time, I also realized that I wouldn’t be able to move onto the next chapter of my life and find myself if I was still holding onto my feelings for you. I avoided you because seeing you was difficult enough, but talking to you while I was trying to get over you was nearly impossible. I never answered any of your messages or calls for the same reason.” 

“But I’m back now and time away has really helped, I’m sorry for many things Ladybug, but leaving isn’t one of them. I hated avoiding you, and I hate hurting you, but it was necessary for the sake of my heart. I just hope that maybe one day you can forgive me and we can move past this as friends.” He got up and went to take off. 

Before she could change her mind, she grabbed onto his wrist to stop him from leaving.

Ladybug looked up at him with a hesitant smile. “I’m sorry, again, for snapping at you without hearing you out. For the record, that was a pretty good explanation and I understand why you left. More than you'll ever know... I forgive you.” and she meant it. She had gone through the same thing while trying to move on from Adrien, although in her case, Adrien had left, so she didn’t have to resort to avoiding him. 

He smiled back then leaned down to wrap his arms around her small frame. 

“I missed you so much,” she said. 

“I missed you too” and with that he released her.

With a yawn, Ladybug checked the time on her yoyo and slowly stood up to face Chat. “It’s getting late. How about I message you on my next solo patrol or group one, and we can meet up to work out when the best times are for you to patrol are?” She needed to get home, it was one in the morning and she had to get up at eight for work. 

“Sounds good to me. Goodnight, Ladybug,” he said, with a nod of conformation. 

“Goodnight, Chat.” And with that, she saw his silhouette leap across buildings then disappear into the distance. She then turned towards her apartment and swung away. 

It wasn’t until Marinette was lying in bed mulling over the conversation that she noticed he hadn’t said a single joke or called her a nickname throughout the entire conversation. 

For some reason, that didn’t sit right with her.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter was a bit longer than the last two chapters so I hope you enjoyed it. I might be a bit busy over the next few weeks cause of exams so I may or may not post in the next two weeks depending on if I am able to write the chapter. The next chapter will be the restaurant reunion so look forward to that!
> 
> Please let me know what you think in the comments! I would love to hear from you.


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for disappearing for a while. I can't believe it's been over a month! But I'm back now with another chapter and I know I said in the previous chapter that we get to see the reunion but I ended up having to split it up into two chapters. 
> 
> more about that in the endnotes 
> 
> Also, thank you to Musigirl04 for beta reading!

As birds noisily chattered on the tree outside her bedroom window and the first beams of morning sunlight shone through, Marinette roused from her restless sleep. The conversation with Chat Noir had been spinning around her head all night, for two nights in a row her thoughts prevented her from sleeping and provided no relief from the exhausting day before.

Friday had proved just as busy as Thursday, so there hadn’t really been much time to consider what Chat returning so suddenly meant. It wasn’t just herself she had to think about, but also the team and how they were going to react when they found out he is back. So that’s the only thing that had been on her mind since she got home.

As she lay on her bed with her hand over her eyes to block out the sun, Marinette knew she needed to get up. If she didn’t get up now she would fall back into her restless sleep and not wake up until Alya called to ask where she was. Then she would have an angry Alya on the phone berating her for being late, again.

“Tikki?” The bluenette lifted her head in search of her Kwami, only to realise that she wasn’t in the nest Marinette had made her. When they had first moved in, Marinette had made her a little nest out of soft fabrics and a cardboard box that Tikki helped her decorate. She had tucked the nest just above her desk, in one of her art supply storage shelves. The Kwami had probably gone into the kitchen to find cookies for breakfast, after all, It was... “Ten o’clock, damn it.”

Peeling back her Duna and swinging her legs over the bed, a wave of dizziness made her pause for a moment then once it passed she flinched as her warm feet hit the cold floorboards. Slippers on, Marinette went in search of her companion.

She had only been living in this apartment for six months and although Marinette occasionally got homesick from missing her parents and her bedroom above the bakery, it already felt like home. There was less stress about her parents possibly going in to check on her during Akuma attacks and not finding her there, which had happened a few times. Luckily they had bought her cover story, that she had snuck out the back door to go find Alya, but there were only so many times that would work. She knew by then that it was time to find her own place, one that would allow her to sneak out without being caught. That's when she came across this place.

Her bedroom has a decent sized balcony that faces an alleyway, the apartment is also high enough that no one would notice her leaving or landing on the balcony. The room itself was cozy with a queen-sized bed that was accented with soft pink pillows and her large black cat pillow, a floral pink and white patterned blanket and a pink hand-knitted woollen throw. Her desk was tucked into the corner of the room next to the built-in wardrobe and was crowded with bits of fabric, half-finished designs that had been crumpled up, pens, pencils, her desktop computer and a few notebooks. A soft pink and black rug was thrown across the floor, also covered in bits of fabric and paper. Her cupboards had been filled to the brim with art supplies, clothes, work in progress’, bolts of fabric, sewing supplies and commissions that had yet to be picked up. This chaos also extended into the living room, hallway, laundry and practically the entire house. The only rooms that had not been used as storage for work were the bathroom and kitchen, which Marinette was surprised she had managed to avoid those rooms as well.

Stumbling out of her bedroom, Marinette found the little Kwami was exactly where she thought she would be, head stuffed into a box of chocolate chip cookies while trying to reach them with her tiny... hands? Paws? Well whatever they were, she was using them to reach for the cookies. When Tikki noticed Marinette had woken up, stumbling into the kitchen, she turned to her chosen with a cheerful greeting.

“Good morning, Marinette,” Tikki’s cheery tone was not welcome at this time in the morning, Marinette was definitely not a morning person, especially when she was functioning on at most one, maybe two, hours of sleep total.

“That’s debatable, Tikki, It depends on your definition of good.” Walking past the mirror hanging in the lounge room, Marinette couldn’t help but notice the large bags under her eyes and the matted nest that had formed in her hair. Nothing a little makeup and a shower wouldn’t fix, it might not fool Alya into thinking nothing was wrong but at least she might be able to fool whomever the couple had invited.

“What’s wrong, Marinette.” Tikki’s eyes were full of concern for her chosen. She knew that Marinette hadn’t gotten any sleep last night, or the night before and that it had something to do with Chat Noir coming back.

“I just couldn’t sleep, that's all, must be all of the excitement from talking to Chat and getting to see Alya tonight.” That was believable, right? By the look Tikki was giving her, probably not.

“We both know that's not true, Marinette, You don’t have to talk about it but it may make you feel better, and I’m always here to talk.” Tikki gave Marinette an encouraging smile as she tipped the cookie box so that the ones she couldn’t reach fell onto the counter.

With a groan Marinette conceded. “Fine, Tikki. I’m just embarrassed that’s all.”

“What is there to be embarrassed about?” Tikki said, tilting her head to the side.

“What is there not to be embarrassed about?” Marinette wasn’t yelling but the frustration was evident in her voice. “I hit my partner, Tikki! The man who has had my back since we were fourteen and I slapped him! The worst part is that I feel like scum because even though I said that I forgive him, I don’t, at least not completely. It still hurts that he avoided me, he could have at least said ‘Hey bugaboo, You know how I told you I’m leaving? Well, that also means I’m not going to be talking to you for a while. Even if you send me like a billion texts and call me every night I’m not going to answer unless it’s absolutely necessary.’ I understand why he did it but he could have at least given me a warning.”

Tikki flew over and hugged Marinette’s cheek, trying her best to console her chosen. “Marinette, you know it’s completely normal to feel that way. Things like this take time, you can’t expect everything to go back to the way it was straight away and it’s ok not to forgive him just yet. Why didn’t you tell him how you feel instead of keeping it to yourself?”

The bluenette looked towards Tikki and sighed. “I don’t know, Tikki, maybe because this is all so complicated. I didn’t talk to him about it because he was opening up to me, he had legitimate reasons for leaving and avoiding me so it didn’t feel right to keep taking my anger out on him. It’s better for everyone if I deal with my emotions myself and move on. There is no point holding onto something that was in the past when there is nothing I can do about it now. As much as it still frustrates me, as much as I’m still pissed at him for not talking to me about what he was going through, I need to move past it otherwise I’m going to explode.” Marinette made a gesture that made it look like her head exploded, which made Tikki giggle.

She then sighed, “But, in saying this, I do understand why he did it. From what he told me, he has had an absolute shit childhood and anyone in his position would have probably left way before Chat did. I also can’t really judge him too much for avoiding me, I would have done the same if Adrien stayed in Paris.”

“Oh and that’s another thing too, Chat was acting really weird while we were talking. Like he was a different person; he didn’t pun, didn’t call me a nickname, he was also blunt and tense too.”

Tikki just rolled her eyes.

“Marinette, he's just gotten back and hasn’t talked to you in a while. As I said, Give it time, but don’t expect him to be the same person he was before. From what you said, the only reason he left was to find himself, he is also older now and has probably matured a lot” Tikki reasoned and if she heard Marinette's not-so-subtle “I'll say” whispered under her breath, she chose not to comment.

“As for him not flirting or calling you a nickname, well that’s what someone does when they have a crush. You also had just yelled at him, so maybe he was being blunt because he was afraid that you might leave if he took too long. I think you just need to take some time to learn who this new Chat is, he might not be the exact same as the person he was before but neither are you.”

Marinette sighed, “Maybe you're right, Tikki.” Maybe it was time to get to know this new version of her partner. To let him know he could be comfortable with her so that he doesn’t push her away again. “I’ll try and get to know him a bit better and see where it goes from there, after all, it might even strengthen our partnership and teamwork. But most of all, I just wanna be his friend again.”

With a bright and encouraging smile, Tikki nodded her head at her chosen. Maybe they can help each other, Tikki thought, Marinette needs to stop taking everything so seriously and learn to enjoy life. Adrien might even help her grow out of her shell a bit now that he is back.

Just as Marinette was walking over to make her own breakfast, her phone buzzed with a message. Taking it from her pocket, the screen lit up to show Alya’s name.

**Hey girl, the name of the restaurant is Le Caulaincourt and it’s about a 15 walk from your apartment. You can walk there but we might be out late so I’m gonna drive you home afterwards, ok? We are all meeting at the restaurant at six-thirty tonight since some of us have work until five.**

Rolling her eyes, Marinette replied.

**All good, I’ll be there.**   
**What are you doing working on a weekend?**   
**And you're really not gonna tell me who you invited, are you?**

**Nope, as I said, it’s a surprise ;) and I had to help finish off some last-minute changes to an article being released on Monday. I’ll talk to you about it tonight.**

**Ok fine. I’ll see you, Nino and ‘surprise’ tonight then.**

**See you then, Mari.**

Once she made and ate her breakfast, Marinette decided to go for a swing around the neighbourhood to kill time. She was in a much better mood than earlier this morning after talking to Tikki and was able to fully enjoy the exhilaration of the wind rushing through her hair and the sense of being in control of every muscle in her body as she leapt and swung from building to building.

Once she was ready to settle down, she found a nearby rooftop garden that was growing all sorts of winter fruits, vegetables and flowers. Snowdrop flowers danced in the wind contrasted against brilliant yellow jasmine and purple pansies, pumpkins grew from large vines that spiralled in the patch, tufts of green leaves from carrots and onions sprouted from the plant boxes. Flowering pea vines also curled up and over the archway and frame, creating a naturally enchanting location with a charming wooden bench underneath the arch.

Twirling around to get a better look at the garden, Ladybug was in awe at the beauty that could peak through even the harshest winters. She then went and sat on the bench, grabbed her notebook and pencil from inside her yo-yo then began to sketch with new inspiration. She sat there for hours until her stomach began to protest from lack of lunch. Making a note of where the garden is, ladybug then swung away back towards her house.

By the time she landed on her balcony, detransformed, then had lunch, it was only three o’clock so Marinette decided to start measuring out the pieces of fabric for the showcase designs.

Once her alarm went off for five-thirty. Marinette decided to take a shower before she got ready but couldn’t help it as she began to let her mind wander and think about the night she had ahead of her. It was unfair of Alya to keep the identity of who she had invited a secret. She should know better than anyone that Marinette tended to overthink situations and she couldn’t help but think Alya had gone behind her back to invite someone she truly could not stand to be around. Maybe she should give her best friend the benefit of the doubt, but it’s really hard to do that knowing Alya’s track record of forcing her into uncomfortable situations. Oh well, she’ll just have to wait and see.

With her hair washed, legs shaved and body scrubbed, Marinette left the bathroom in search of something to wear. The restaurant was fancy but affordable so she found a dress that was sexy but comfortable yet appropriate for the restaurant they were going to. She then put on some light makeup, slipped on a pair of flats that matched her dress, and grabbed her purse. She did one last check in the mirror, then once she deemed her appearance acceptable, called out for Tikki.

“Yes, Mariette?” Tikki peaked her head out from in her nest.

“Are you going to be alright tonight? There haven’t been many Akumas lately, and even less at night, so I don’t see a problem with leaving you in the apartment. I might be a little late getting home and I don’t want you to be bored sitting in my bag for the entire night.”

“That’s alright, you go have fun with your friends. I have a feeling I might have something to do tonight as well. Although, it would be a good idea to choose a spot where we could meet in case of an emergency. Somewhere in the middle that wouldn’t be too hard to find, especially for me.”

Nodding her head, Marinette then went to grab her phone and opened the maps app. “Here would be perfect, and the park has trees for you to hide in so you won’t be seen. It’s also open enough that it would be easily spotted by the both of us and easy enough to get to. Just wait there for me and I’ll call out to you.”

“That sounds perfect!”

With a warm smile, Marinette walked over to her desk then gave her Kwami a soft kiss on the head.

She started towards the door, but turned back and said. “I’ll see you tonight, don’t get Into too much trouble while I’m gone.” And with that, she closed the door behind her.  
The walk to the restaurant was peaceful, apart from the occasional car going by on the road. Lucky I chose to wear flats, walking in heels would have been a nightmare. Not to mention I probably would have fallen flat on my face.

As the GPS app on her phone told her she was nearly at the restaurant, Marinette looked up and saw small fairy lights hanging up out the front of an old brick building with black accents. Getting closer, she could make out the label of the restaurant with large swirling letters that spelt out Le Caulaincourt and vines hanging from the roof as decoration. It looked like it had been recently renovated while not damaging the character of the original building.

Marinette smiled as she noticed a certain brunette waiting for her at the front entrance. She started to walk faster as Alya began to meet her halfway then embraced her best friend in a long hug.

“I have missed you so much! I feel like it has been so long since I last saw you”

“That’s because it has, Alya. The last time I saw you was Christmas! Life has just been so busy since then.” Plus there is her duty as Ladybug with patrols and the occasional Akuma, but it’s not like I can tell her that. And anyway, she also has patrols but it’s been hard without Chat Noir.

“It’s ok, girl, I’ve been busy too. After this showcase, though, we have got to make more of an effort to see each other.”

“Agreed” Marinette nodded then they both pulled away and finally got a good look at what Alya was wearing, she looked gorgeous. The dress she was wearing was navy blue and fitted to show off her curves, the off the shoulder cut showed off her collar bones and the pearl necklace with a gold chain that Nino had bought her for their anniversary was hanging from her neck. The bottom of her dress was embroidered with a white lace that matched her heels which also were navy blue and had a lace bow on the front of them. Her auburn hair was out apart from a small clip that matched her necklace and her earrings were gold hoops.

While Marinette was admiring Alya’s outfit, Alya was looking her over too.

“Girl, are you ok? You look exhausted, and not just work exhausted. Did something happen?”

Of course, she noticed what Marinette tried to cover up this morning. “It’s fine” she shrugged. “I just haven’t had the best week. Someone I haven’t seen in a while because they just disappeared off the face of the earth, came back. We had a fight the other night after they showed up out of the blue so I haven’t had much sleep since.” Was it just her or did guilt flicker across Alya’s face for a second? It must have been her imagination because Alya quickly went into reporter mode.

“Really? So, who is this mystery person? And how come I haven’t heard anything about them?” Hmph, she should have known Alya would push. She hated lying to her, but maybe she would settle for a half-truth.

“I told you, someone I haven’t seen in a while. You don’t know him cause I met him outside of school, we were really close but not anymore, ok?”

“Him, aye” Marinette's eyes went wide at her slip up and Alya had a shit-eating grin on her face.

“It- it’s not like that. I have never thought of him that way, we are just friends. Sure he used to have a crush on me when we were younger but nothing happened because I was in love with Adrien.” before she could dig herself further into a hole, she covered her mouth with her hand.

“Oh, where have I heard that before, ‘we are just friends’. It’s getting a little ridiculous, don't you think? I sware that phrase is going to be the death of me. Especially since the guy used to like you." Alya sighed and Marinette's embarrassment. "Alright fine, how about we head inside? I came to get you while Nino went to find a table. The other person isn’t here yet though, they said they got caught at work and are going to be about ten minutes late.”

Most of the tension disappeared from Marinette, although still wary of who this new newcomer is, but grateful for the change of subject. “Ok, sounds good. But shouldn’t I get some warning of who they are first? I mean, by you not telling me it’s making me think that I will probably want to run away as soon as they walk through the door. It’s not Lila, is it? I swear to god Ayla if it’s Lila-.”

“M, I promise it’s not Lila. Honestly, I’m not sure how you are going to react, which is why I am not telling you. Please just, don’t run away and don’t make a big deal about it either.”

“Fine, but no promises,” Marinette said, with a barely audible huff. “Let’s get this over with then.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I thought I would have time to write in between exams but I really didn't, that's why it has taken me so long to write this chapter. 
> 
> And as I said at the beginning of the chapter, the words got away from me. I ended up with nearly 4000 words while only having written about half of the ideas I wanted to include so I chose the best place to split it. I have quite a bit of chapter 5 written so hopefully, I will post that in the next week or so. 
> 
> Thank you for reading! Feel free to comment and leave kudos :)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> How will Marinette react to Adrien's return?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you to Khanofallorcs and BLUEMoonMessenger for beating!

Walking through the large glass doors leading into the restaurant, Marinette and Alya spotted Nino straight away. He had chosen a bench seat against the back wall and had already gotten table water with some empty cups as well as menus. He didn’t have his red cap on, probably Alya’s influence. Instead, he had jelled his hair up into spikes and wore a black button-up t-shirt with jeans. 

He smiled as they approached, then got out of his seat and gave her a tight hug. Marinette had always loved Nino, ever since they were in diapers he had been like the brother she never had. Throwing him and Alya into the panther cage at the zoo was one of her proudest moments as Ladybug, not that she could tell them that. She wanted a relationship like they have, a friendship that grows into more, with mutual respect and love. Their relationship seemed to come as naturally as breathing, so they always wanted to be around each other while respecting the other’s privacy and space. It was like they could read each other's mind and know what the other needs at the right moment; it was admirable. 

When they pulled back, he said “Hey, dudette, I’ve missed you. We both have”

“I know, I’ve missed you guys too. So what have you been up to, Nino? Got any big gigs coming up?” Marinette asked and gave her long-time friend an encouraging smile. 

His face practically lit up at the question, “Actually, I have a few, but not many. I’m not going to say anymore though, at least not until my other dude gets here. Anyway, that's not all; my girl has some news as well.” Nino said.

“Same for me hun, I wanna wait until they get here too.” Alya seemed just as excited to announce her news as Nino.

Nino looked down at her phone then back at the other two, “He just parked now, he’ll be here in a minute.” 

Just as Nino put his phone away, Marinette looked over to see the glass doors swing open. Her stomach dropped as a tall young man with distinctive golden hair and bright green eyes walked through them. Her first instinct was to question why Chat had shown up to a dinner with her friends, but no, she had a completely different problem. One that was arguably worse than Chat showing up. 

What the hell is Adrien doing here?

She looked towards Alya with a frown. Alya knew how long Marinette had pined after Adrien and how long it had taken her to get over him. Now the guilty look Alya had given her made more sense, but was it because Adrien had randomly shown up just like Chat? or was it because she was making a shit week even worse?

In reality, Marinette knew that Alya had good intentions but she couldn’t help but feel hurt that Alya would throw her into the deep end without warning her first. 

She looked back at Adrien. His face lit up when he recognised the group sitting at the back but, for some reason, his smile grew wider when it landed on her. Damn her weak resolve, she couldn’t just leave now that he had seen her. 

He looked so happy that Marinette couldn’t help but melt; it wasn’t like it used to be where her heart would go into overdrive. Don’t get her wrong, he was still able to make her feel a certain way with his white button-up shirt that had the top button undone, wild blond hair, tight black jeans that clenched his… what the hell was she saying? He certainly looked good but she wasn’t a teenager anymore, she had gotten over him a while ago and having old feelings resurface was out of the question. Get a grip, Marinette, otherwise you are going to end up embarrassing yourself, again. 

“Hey girl, are you ok?” 

Shaking her head to break her thoughts, she realized Alya was trying to get her attention but ignored her and looked back at where Adrien had been standing before, though she couldn’t find him. She looked around only to come face to face with the blond in question. When had he gotten so close? Had he been trying to talk to me?

Adrien was now standing above her but when he noticed that she wasn’t paying attention and lost in her own thoughts, he waited patiently for her to come back into reality.

She quickly stood up to hug him but ended up colliding with his chin and sending him stumbling backwards. 

“O.. oh god, I’m so sorry.” She stuttered, mortified. Why did this always happen to me?

He chuckled, rubbing his chin “It’s fine, are you okay?” Once she gave him a firm nod, he grinned then said “Glad to know you haven’t changed much, Marinette.”. 

She gave him a slight smile, then quietly said “I’m just a little shocked to see you since no one told me you were back in Paris, let alone coming to dinner.” she confessed. Marinette then turned towards Alya and gave her ‘so-called’ best friend a glare that could set something, or someone, on fire. 

He chuckled in amusement at her reaction. “It’s fine, they never told me you were coming either. I hope I’m a nice surprise though, cause I know you are, and I haven't seen you in ages. It will be nice to catch up.”

“Um... ah yeah, it’ll be nice to catch up... With you.” Please just put me out of my misery, and make it a quick death. 

Not wanting to prolong her suffering, Marinette sunk back into her chair. Even though she was going to kill Alya later for not warning her beforehand, she had to admit that it was nice to see him. All she had to do was get through dinner without acting like a lunatic, shouldn’t be too hard. 

They all joined Marinette in sitting down to look at the menus and waited to be served. Once they had chosen, Adrien asked “so, how have you guys been? Last time I had a full conversation with Nino was when he started that new job at the nightclub, about two weeks ago, but I haven’t heard anything since. He only called me the other day to tell me off for not telling him I was back.” He chuckled in amusement. 

More like Alya told Nino to tell him off. Marinette thought to herself. 

“Well-“ Nino started but was quickly cut off by his girlfriend's excitement. 

“We both have some news. Not even Mari knows cause it was a surprise we wanted to tell you both together.” she had a massive smile on her face and was practically vibrating. Did Nino finally pop the question? “Okay, so you know how I have been an intern at Agence France-Press for a while?”

Marinette nodded and looked around the table to see the others had as well. 

“Well. I’ve been hired as a full-time employee! I’m finally a junior reporter now! I start on Monday with my first assignment!”

“Congratulations”-“you deserve it” Marinette and Adrien exclaimed at the same time. They both turned to look at eachother and he chuckled then she noticed the soft look he gave her and almost had a heart attack. Eager to distract herself, and to break Adrien’s gaze, Marinette stood up (without bumping into anyone) and gave her best friend a hug, followed by the others who did the same.

“Thanks, guys. Why don’t you tell them what your news is now babe?” She encouraged. 

Nino looked at them both then exclaimed, “I finally found a producing company and I’m in the process of cutting my first record!”

Adrien smiled at his best friend and clapped him on the back “They would have been crazy not to hire you, man. I’m glad you two are doing well.”

“I’m so proud of the both of you,” Marinette smiled

As the conversation picked up, they all seemed content with it just being between the three of them, which Marinette didn’t mind. They all had some catching up to do with each other and if that meant listening and observing then she was fine with that. At least it meant that she didn't have to talk much. 

“So, what about you sunshine?” Alya asked, “how have you been?” 

“I’m honestly doing well, better than I have been in a while,” he said.

Nino looked as if he just remembered something and jumped in “Oh, I almost forgot. Dude, How did the meeting with your father go?”

He paused, most likely to find a way to word what he was about to say. “I’m not exactly sure, It was really strange. He did most of the talking, which wasn’t unusual, but he almost seemed happy to see me. After leaving without his approval I would have thought there would have been a few demands or him to be cold towards me, most likely some yelling as well.”

Ayla and Marinette turned to face each other, able to understand the other with one knowing glance. Marinette had been working for his father for just under a year. Gabriel had been personally mentoring her - a fact that she didn’t expect Adrien to know unless someone had already told him. He had been gone for a while so it was very likely that he had no idea, but she wasn’t looking forward to telling him. It was already awkward between them and adding the fact that she works for the man he had practically run away from wouldn’t help. 

Nino cut Marinette's thoughts off. “Man, he is your father. It’s not that weird that he would have missed you, he probably didn’t like how you two left off any more than you did. Although, it is strange that he didn’t demand anything of you. Are you sure that's all he wanted? To see how you are?” he said.

“Well… he did ‘propose’ something which was also really strange, he doesn’t usually ask something from me, he just tells me what to do and expects me to do it. He wants me to come back and work for him but he also said that he wants to teach me how to run Gabriel.” Adrien explained. 

Alya then jumped into the conversation, “Ok, that doesn’t sound too bad but what’s in it for you? He can’t expect you to come back and work for him as you did before. He overworked you, barely paid you, controlled almost every aspect of your life and tried to cut you off from the rest of the world.” 

“That’s the thing, he said that if I come back to work for him then it would only be for three days a week. He said, if I accept the offer, he will fully pay for any university course I choose for the rest of the week then I would get Saturday off.” Adrien said, then went on to detail what his father had said. From vacation days, payment, days he would work and more. It sounded fair but it ultimately wasn’t her decision. 

Alya must have thought the same thing because she said “that doesn’t sound too bad, sunshine. It seems fair, he’s basically giving you everything that a normal Gabriel employee would get but with a few extras on the side. So what’s the problem?”

He sighed, “You’re right, it does seem fair, but it feels like there might be a hidden catch that he may have purposefully left out. My father doesn’t do stuff like this unless it will benefit him, either now or later. I’m worried that if I accept it will give him a way to control me, to take it all away from me unless I do everything he says. I just- I just don’t know if I want to risk it.” 

Adrien put his head in his hands, frustrated with the situation. He then looked up at Marinette with sparkly green eyes, full of confusion and seemingly lost “Hey, Mari. You’ve been really quiet, what do you think?”

She was taken back by the sudden question as all eyes around the table turned towards her but quickly recovered. Adrien needs a friend right now so act like one. “Um… I think it's a fair deal too but I also agree that it may give him a way to control you. Ultimately it’s your decision, but...” She paused for a minute to try and find a good solution. “Did he give you a contract? and if so did you read it?” 

I just said three full sentences in front of Adrien with barely a stutter! Maybe this won’t be so hard after all. 

He nodded then rubbed the back of his neck, “yeah he did and I did try to read it but it was around 30 pages of gibberish.” 

She smiled at that, turned to Alya then said “Say, Alya, don’t you have a lawyer friend? The one who explains the law side of your articles and gives you insight into cases?”

At the mention of her friend, it seemed like a light bulb lit up inside of Alya’s head, “Oh yeah… why didn’t I think of that? She works at Avi Bitton law firm. Her name is Aimée, I could give you her number if you want?” 

Adrien looked on the verge of tears “I honestly don’t know how to thank you, you guys are the best.” 

“It’s alright, Adrien,” Marinette assured. “We are your friends, of course, we want to help. Make sure that you talk to Aimée about your situation and tell her that you are worried that your father may use the contract to control you. If there is anything strange, not clear enough or anything that you want to change then write it down or highlight it so that you can go back to your father and tell him to either rewrite it with the changes or you won’t sign it. Simple as that.” Then she added as an afterthought “Maybe you could take one of us with you, as moral support and as a second opinion.”

“Well, father said that he would like my answer by Monday. I was going to go see him that afternoon so that means I will either have to meet with Aimée tomorrow or Monday morning.” Adrien explained. 

“Sorry my dude, I have an appointment with a venue tomorrow morning then a gig in the afternoon. I'm also in the recording studio Monday morning.” Nino shrugged.

“Yeah, and sorry, Sunshine,” Alya said, “I’ve got an article to write by Monday then I’m doing news reporting for the rest of the day. Although, Marinette told me yesterday that she has Monday off this week because she is fine proofing some designs. I’m sure she would love to take a few hours out of her day to help you out.” Alya said with a mischievous gleam in her eyes. 

Again with her throwing me under the bus. 

Adrien, being the oblivious sunshine child he was, completely overlooked the fact that Marinette was free. He turned to her with a look of admiration and happiness then said “Really? Do you still design Marinette? I remember how talented you were back in school and I had always wondered what brand you chose to work at. With talent like yours, I'm sure many brands were wanting to snatch you up.” 

Her cheeks flushed pink at the praise then she felt the colour drain from her face at the realisation of what he was asking her.

Great, now I have to tell him I work for his father, then he is going to hate me, I'll never see him again, our group will be torn apart and of course, they will choose him so I’ll have to find new friends and-

“Are you okay, Marinette?” she snapped out of her freak out to a concerned voice. “You went really pale there for a minute, do you want a glass of water?” How was Adrien honestly the kindest human being on the earth yet he had no idea of the spiral he had just sent her on. 

After a long, and awkward, silence she finally managed to squeak out “Ah, no. I’m kind. I mean I’m fine! I’ve... gotta go to the… um rathvoon. I mean bathroom! I’ll just…” she abruptly stood up then started towards the bathroom “be back in a minute” she squeaked again. 

Marinette vaguely heard a quick conversation happening back at the table but only caught a few sentences.

“Why does she always seem to run away from me, Alya? Did I do something wrong? She looked like she had seen a ghost.”

“Who knows what set her off” Alya shrugged, “She gets like this sometimes. But I wouldn’t take it personally if I were you. Let me just go check on her to make sure she is alright”

That was all she heard before opening the door to the ladies bathroom. 

Once she deemed the bathroom empty she went to call out to Tikki but remembered that Tikki had stayed back at the apartment. 

She heard the door swing open again and turned back to see Alya standing there. Her friend rushed over and enveloped her into a tight hug. 

“Are you ok, M? What happened back there?”

Tears started welling into the bluenettes eyes, threatening to spill over. Alya pulled away from the hug then took a few steps back to look at Marinette while she spoke. “You had to mention that I still design, didn’t you? Now I have to explain that I work for his father.”

“Mari, I honestly don’t see a problem here. So what if you work for his father, he will probably be proud of you for following your dreams and not giving up. I’m not sure if you have noticed but that boy looks at you like you hung the stars yourself.” Alya gave a slight chuckle but Marinette didn't see the humour in the situation.

“Alya, I’m not going down this road again, it will drive me crazy. It took me forever to get over Adrien and I only just got over what happened with Luka. I am not, and I repeat, not going to let you put crap in my head. Adrien does not look at me like that, never has and never will. Plus, even if he did, nothing will come out of it. I am not going to let myself get sucked into that pit again. It was toxic and I wasn’t any better than one of his crazy fangirls, I may have even been worse since I actually had the opportunity to get to know him better but instead I chose to stalk him.”

Alya held her hands up in defence. “Alright, you're over him,” Alya said, shaking her head “But girl, that doesn’t mean you get to avoid him.” Alya took a step towards Marinette then continued “You need to pull yourself together otherwise you are going to hurt him, and yes you have the power to do some real damage here. I know you don’t want to hurt him but he loves you, M. Whether it is as a friend or more, he loves you and I know you still love him. He needs a friend, especially since he has only just come back and now has to deal with Gabriel again.”

With a sigh, Marinette slid down the wall to sit on the floor. “I know Als, I know.” she turned to look back at the brunette, “All of this would have been simpler if you had told me he was coming, better yet, you shouldn’t have invited me at all. I told you that I have had an absolute shit week and you still went behind my back anyway. All I’ve done is make a fool of myself all night, even he says I haven’t changed and that scares me, scares me that I won’t ever truly move past this. I can’t even blame him, he is still just as oblivious as he was when we were teenagers, but it just hurts. I don’t know if I will ever actually be able to be his friend.”

“That’s completely understandable but can you at least try? He needs support right now so don’t let whatever happened, or didn’t happen, affect you from being there for him.”

“Alright fine, I’ll try, but no promises. First things first is to actually have a coherent conversation with him.” 

“Well, you seemed to be doing fine before, ya know, running to hide in the bathroom.” Alya extended her hand to help Marinette up off the floor. “I know something that may help, go with him to talk with Aimée.” Marinette went to protest but Alya cut her off. “He also asked you where you work, so you should either tell him or try to come up with an explanation for why you don’t want to. I am telling you now though, he will find out eventually and it will be better if you tell him. I don’t know what you think will happen once you do tell him, though. As I said, he adores you and nothing will change that unless you seriously fuck up which, so far, you definitely have not.” 

“Alya, I don’t want to go with him to see Aimée. It will be a disaster and you-” she pointed towards her best friend “-know it. It would be better if you and Nino would come along but of course, you say you're busy.”

“Girl, I don’t want to push you but sometimes I have to. You say you want to try and be his friend so act like it. Not to sound like Chloé, but you're being ridiculous.”

Marinette looked at the floor “Fine.” she huffed “Let’s just go before the boys start to get worried.”

The two of them then left, not noticing the boy they had just talked about quietly slipping out of the corridor.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry for the long wait again, the stress of exams and trying to catch up with work caught up to me. Cause of COVID, probably like most students, I missed out on most of my practicals so they all got crammed into 2-3 weeks. Meaning I also had 2-3 weeks worth of practical analysis. Long story short, I am still trying to catch up but I have gotten through most of it which is why I finally found time to write. I have about 4 weeks of holidays before more exams then I am finally done so hopefully I will be able to post the next chapter before those exams start, no promises though. I also took down the 1-2 week time frame note cause lets face it, that was really unrealistic.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien overhears something he shouldn't have and comes to a decision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to Khanofallorcs for beta reading.

Adrien felt a foot kick him underneath the table but didn’t acknowledge it, too caught up in his thoughts to register Nino trying to get his attention. 

The first person he noticed in their group was Marinette and how beautiful she looked. The dress she was wearing was black, off the shoulder, and hugged her curves around her bodice while flaring out at the bottom in layers that were high at the front and low at the back which showed off both her shoes and long, toned legs. A blue belt was fitted around her waist while a blue heart pendant hung around her neck; both brought out the colour of her eyes. Her slippers were plain black while the bluenette’s hair was undone in loose curls that framed her face. 

She was gorgeous, not that she hadn’t been beautiful in lycée, but _wow._

Adrien couldn’t help but keep his eyes glued to her, but she seemed to be in her own little world and didn’t even notice when he had tried to greet her. He’d never been good with picking up on social cues and had always had trouble with knowing what to say to people without offending them, _I guess that’s what you get for having a sheltered childhood,_ but it had always been so much worse when it came to Marinette. 

So he decided that all he had to do was patiently wait for her to come back to reality, something that he had learned to do back in school. 

She had been one of his longest friends and because of this, she had always been special to him but actually having a conversation with her had always been a challenge. 

It was like he frightened her, but he could never understand _why_. Why whenever he talked to her she would run away, stutter, or could barely form a sentence around him. Although he did have his guesses.

_Maybe she is intimidated by me because my father is one of her idols? Maybe because of the gum incident? But that doesn’t make sense, Marinette isn’t one to hold a grudge, heck, if Chloé ever pulls her head out of her ass and apologises to her like she is too afraid to do, I bet Marinette wouldn’t hesitate to give Chloé a second chance._

“Adrien, you’re starting to freak me out, my dude. Are you ok?” He vaguely hears Nino trying to get his attention and could feel Plagg nudging him, trying to pull him from his thoughts as well but he still needed to work through some stuff. Like how Marinette had been quiet throughout their conversations and had come full circle as soon as he had asked her opinion on his father, she had actually spoken to him without stuttering! 

He struggled to rein in his excitement at that moment and was tempted to jump up and pull her into a hug but only just managed to stop himself before he did something embarrassing. 

That was before she got up, out of the blue, and quickly ran into the bathroom like she had seen a ghost. 

_It was your fault,_ the voice in his head said. But how could it have been his fault though, if all he had said was that he was proud of her and asked where she worked? It didn’t make sense, although there was a lot that didn’t make sense when it came to Marinette; she was an enigma. 

After Alya had left, Adrien couldn’t help himself, he needed to know that she was ok and to see what was wrong. If it was because of him, then he needed to apologise; he wasn’t sure what he would be apologising for but he would work that out when he got there. 

He went to stand up but a hand grabbed onto his arm, stopping him from walking towards the bathroom. 

“Where are you going, dude? Let Alya sort it out, ok? It’s best to leave Marinette alone when she gets like this.”

“But, Nino! I don’t know what I did wrong and I need to try and fix it somehow, she’s one of the first friends I made, she’s special to me and I can’t lose her. Especially since I don’t even know why she is mad at me.”

“Fine, but don’t say I didn’t warn you. If she really is upset at you, which I doubt she is, then I fear for your life and I want no part of it.” Nino let go of Adrien’s arm then the blond slowly walked towards the bathrooms, shaking off his best friend’s warning.

Pushing open the door to the bathroom corridor, Adrien could hear two familiar voices echoing from behind the door that had ‘Ladies’ written on it. He knew he shouldn’t hear this; it was a private conversation, but what did they say about curiosity and cats?

“Girl, that doesn’t mean you get to avoid him.” Getting closer, he could now make out the conversation much better. 

“You need to pull yourself together otherwise you are going to hurt him and, yes, you have the power to do some real damage here.”

_Who were they talking about? They must be talking about me, but what does Alya mean by ‘damage’?_

The next few moments of the conversation were drowned out by one of the men’s toilets flushing, then the dryer turning on, and finally, someone exiting the bathroom. He pressed his ear closer to the door again, hoping that the conversation hadn’t ended. 

He was grateful for the shallow voice of Marinette drifting through the door.

_“_ All of this would have been simpler if you had told me he was coming, better yet, you shouldn’t have invited me at all. I told you that I have had an absolute shit week and you still went behind my back anyway. _”_

_She really did not want to be here so why was Alya pushing her?_

“All I’ve done is make a fool of myself all night” _She hadn’t made a fool of herself at all, sure she had bumped into me but I’ve always found her clumsiness endearing and kinda cute- wait… where did that come from?_

“I can’t even blame him, he is still just as oblivious as he was when we were teenagers”, “I don’t know if I will ever be able to be his friend.”

Adrien flinched at that. _Oblivious? What do I have to be oblivious about? Sure things sometimes go over my head and I can’t always read people but I can’t be that bad, can I?_

What hit him the hardest though was her saying she didn’t want to be his friend. Might as well add that to the list of things he didn’t understand along with why she never told him how she really felt. 

“That’s completely understandable, but can you at least try to be his friend? He needs support right now so don’t let whatever happened, or didn’t happen, affect you from being there for him.”

_If she really can’t stand being around me, then why is Alya trying to force her?_ Adrien was just about to storm in there to defend Marinette, to tell her that she didn’t have to do anything that made her uncomfortable. He got enough of that shit from his father, no one should have to be forced into anything. Especially someone as kind, thoughtful, selfless, and amazing as Marinette. He couldn’t explain it but he had always felt a sense of protectiveness over her, similar to how he feels towards Ladybug. Just without the romantic aspect of his feelings. 

“Alright fine, I’ll try, but no promises. First things first is to actually have a coherent conversation with him.”

_Well at least that’s a start, maybe we can get to know each other a bit better and I can prove to her that I am a great friend who deserves a second chance! I can’t lose her._

“Go with him to talk with Aimée.”

“Alya, I don’t want to go with him to see Aimée. It will be a disaster and you know it.”

“You say you want to try and be his friend, so act like it.”

“Fine.” _Perfect! That’s my chance; now I should get out of here before they leave._

Adrien slowly backed away from the door, careful not to make any noise, then headed out of the corridor. Nino was waiting back at the table, phone in hand, and most likely scrolling through Instagram. When he heard the ladies’ bathroom creak open behind him, he hurried towards the table then landed in his seat, trying to act like he had been there the whole time. 

“Man, what happened?” Nino questioned when he noticed the blond. 

“Not now, I’ll tell you later, but I have been here the whole time. Ok?” Adrien said, just before the girls sat back down. 

“I hope we didn’t miss anything.” Ayla looked straight at Adrien, seemingly analysing him as she said it. 

He could feel the heat rising in his cheeks as he shook his head “No… nothing happened. We were just catching up some more, right, dude?” He turned to Nino with pleading eyes that said, _back me up!_

“Ha? Oh yeah, we’ve just been talking.” Nino nodded. 

“So, are you alright, Mari? You didn’t look so good before.” Adrien said, trying to change the subject.

He noticed her take a big breath then she smiled at him “I’m fine, thank you for your concern, though. I think the food mustn’t have agreed with me.”

“I’m glad you’re ok.” He deflated at the answer, _she could have at least finished with her reassurance. She didn’t need to lie to me._

Just as he finished that thought, Adrien heard someone’s phone start buzzing. 

They all went to check their phones, but Alya held up hers. “Sorry, guys, I’ve gotta take this. It’s kinda important.”

Alya pressed the answer button, stood up, then started walking towards the restaurant doors for some privacy. 

It was awkward after she left, a silence had descended over the trio. Adrien was fishing for something to say and a way to break it when someone beat him to it. 

“Hey, Adrien?”

He turned towards the voice and was met with determined steel-blue eyes that sent a shiver up his spine. _Where have I seen that look before?_

“Huh?” Was all that managed to escape his lips in acknowledgement. 

“I’ll go with you to talk to Aimée. That is if you want me to.” His eyes lit up at her and a bright smile spread across his face. 

“Of course I want you to come!” he exclaimed, this time he couldn’t control himself. He jumped up out of his seat and pulled her up into a tight hug. “I don’t know If I’ll ever be able to say ‘thank you’ enough. You're amazing, Mari.”

A crimson blush spread across her freckled cheeks but he didn’t notice with his face buried in her shoulder and arms wrapped tightly around her waist. He slowly pulled back when someone cleared their throats, pulling them out of the spell. 

Alya had come back and was looking at them with a cheeky smirk and her bag thrown over her shoulder. 

“This has been fun, it was nice catching up with you, Adrien. I’ve gotta go, though. I know I said that I would drive you home, Mari, but Sonya just called and said there is a problem down at the agency and I need to be there ASAP.”

Adrien turned his attention back towards the bluenette who was pouting, “Then I guess I’m going to have to walk back.” she shrugged.

Alya shook her head, “You know I don’t like you walking down that street, especially at night. Hun, do you think you could drive her back to her apartment?”

“Sorry, I can’t. I have a late-night gig tonight, straight after dinner.”

“I can drive you.” everyone turned towards Adrien like they had forgotten he was there. He didn’t notice though, because he had already looked down at Marinette, excited at the prospect of being able to drive her home. _More time to talk!_

Ayla grinned “What a lovely offer, Adrien. I’m sure she would love it if you drove her home. Have fun, you two,” She gestured towards Nino for him to follow her and he stood up. 

“See ya, dude. I’ll call you tomorrow to see how the meeting with Aimée went.” With that, the couple left. Leaving an awkward Marinette and Adrien behind. 

He stood up and looked down at her then offered her his hand, “Do you wanna get out of here?”

She gave him a slight smile, “Sure, we just need to pay first.” she said then grabbed his hand and he pulled her up.

“It’s fine, I’ll go pay now.” 

She glared at him with a stubborn expression, one that said she would not budge. “You will not, we will each pay half. Alya will probably pay me back for her half later anyway.”

He chuckled then smirked, “I don’t mind and Alya doesn’t have to pay anyone back because I’m going to pay. I mean it, I haven’t seen you guys in ages. So, it’s my treat.”

She whispered something about stupid chivalrous men then reached for her bag. He was confused for a second before she pulled out her card, turned his hand over then placed it in his hand. The contact shot sparks up his arm and he made eye contact with her, just for a second, but it was enough to feel the burn from the fire in her eyes. “Just take the damn card, Agreste. I’m not poor and I can pay for my own meal.” She then turned away from him and began packing her things away. 

Adrien huffed and walked towards the front desk. She was so stubborn it was infuriating, of course he didn’t think she was poor. He was simply trying to do a nice thing for his friends and what she said was a low blow. What she didn’t know is that he could be just as stubborn.

Once he got to the front desk he greeted the cashier then presented her with his card and as he was handing her Marinette’s card he leaned in and said, “Can you please pretend to use this card, my friend over there is watching and won’t allow me to pay fully.” she giggled, then nodded. 

“What’s your number, cutie,” she asked and he was taken back by her forwardness. 

“Um, what?” he tilted his head as if he didn’t know what she had said. 

“What was your table number,” he knew that’s not what she had meant but at least she gave him the option to pretend like he didn’t. 

“It was 13,” Once she found the table order she processed the payment from his card and pretended to tap Marinette’s card then handed them both over to him

He walked back to the table where Marinette was, in fact, watching him. “You ready to go?” he asked her, then handed her card back.

She nodded and they both headed out of the restaurant. 

As they were walking Marinette looked away as she began to speak, “You seemed to be flirting with that cashier back there. That’s not like you.”

“I don’t know what you mean.” he shrugged. 

She smirked, “Oh don’t give me that, you leaned over as you spoke then she giggled at what you said. I could clearly tell she was biting her lip and sizing you up”

“One: I was not flirting, I just said something about how stubborn you were in not letting me pay for dinner. Two: are you _jealous_?” he drew out the word ‘jealous’ to tease her and leaned in really close to her personal space, then grinned. “I wouldn’t peg you for the jealous type.”

She crossed her arms as they walked towards the car and pouted, “I don’t get jealous, I’m just protective of my friends and the people I care about. Plus, you may not have realised, but she was eyeing you up and down like a piece of meat.”

He chuckled then held his hands up in defense, “Alright, fine, she may have been trying to flirt with me, but I definitely was not trying to flirt with her. I don’t see what the big deal is anyway.” he gestured towards his parked car, “There’s my car, you might want to direct me to your apartment seeing as I’ve never been there before.”

As soon as Adrien arrived back in Paris, the first thing he did was buy a new car. Sure, catching taxis and public transport worked when he was overseas, but it would be much more convenient to be able to drive himself around, especially if he was going to start working. He opened the car door for Marinette with a bow and she rolled her eyes but got in anyway. 

He ran around to the driver’s seat and got in as well, turning on the engine and pulling out onto the road. “I know that you guys don’t want me to spend money on you, but I want you to know that I like spoiling my friends; especially if I haven’t seen them in ages and have had an amazing dinner with them. That doesn’t mean I think you’re poor or that you can't pay for your own food, I hope you know that.”

She sighed then looked at him, half of her face was illuminated by the street lamps, and half was covered in shadow. She looked like she was glowing and he found it hard to concentrate on the road ahead of him. 

“I know you aren't like that, Adrien. I’m used to taking care of myself and I know I can be stubborn, I’m sorry if I offended you.”

She sounded so genuine that he couldn’t help but melt. She was the same old Marinette, kind, caring, stubborn, but selfless. Someone who would go out of their way to make sure everyone else was alright before herself.

“It’s fine, I know you didn’t mean to,” he reassured her.

She pointed to a tall building with each level distinguishable by a separate balcony for each apartment. “Oh, there is my apartment by the way.” 

He pulled into the driveway and parked in a visitors’ parking space. She opened the door, put her bag on her shoulder then made to get out of the car but stopped and turned around. “Thank you for driving me home, Adrien.” Marinette then planted her feet on the floor but stopped when she must have noticed him doing the same thing. “What are you doing?”

He got out of the car before answering her, “Isn’t it obvious? I’m escorting a lovely lady to her doorstep.”

She raised an eyebrow and said, “why though, the door to the staircase is just there.” She pointed towards the door that had a metal plate above it with 5-10 inscribed on it in a fancy script. 

He rolled his eyes, “Marinette, just let me walk you to the door.” He shook his head then came around to her side of the car. He may have heard her mutter “fine” under her breath but he couldn’t be sure so he didn’t say anything about it. 

He bumped her shoulder affectionately as they walked then gave her a wide smile. “Oh hey, you want to know what I just realised?”

Her brow furrowed in confusion, “what?”

His smile turned into a smirk, “That you are actually speaking to me, without stuttering or getting embarrassed. What changed?”

She squeaked, actually squeaked! Then tripped over her own feet, to which he quickly grabbed onto her shoulders so she wouldn’t fall. She was so adorable that all he wanted to do was pull her into a hug and protect the innocence that was Marinette Dupain-Cheng from the world. He refrained though, choosing to chuckle at her mortified expression. He quickly let go of her shoulders as her face became as red as a tomato. He didn’t think his sort-of friend would appreciate him touching her… nope, that’s not the best train of thought.

After a few minutes of silence, he presumed so she could conjure up an answer for him, she finally spoke up when they reached the building door. “I don’t know what to tell you… I've just always had a problem with talking to you.” She raised her hands up and started her crazy hand gestures, he smiled. _She really hasn’t changed._ “Not that I don’t like talking with you, because I definitely do. Well, not definitely but I really like talking to you. You are a very interesting person to talk to. I love- well not love cause that would be weird- but I really like talking to you. I’m just going to shut up now.”

Adrien could tell she was flustered because of her rambling and her permanent blush. _I should probably try to calm her down._

“Hey, Mari. Just calm down, ok? It’s only me, so just start again and talk a bit slower this time. Maybe it would help if I narrowed down my question?” He leaned on the door as he spoke, she nodded so he asked, “Why were you so skittish around me in collège? you couldn’t even talk to me and I couldn’t help but wonder if I did something...” He trailed off, not sure what else to say. 

She quickly grabbed his hand in reassurance but when he tried to look into her eyes, she turned away. “I am so sorry I made you feel that way, you did absolutely nothing wrong. You have always been the kindest, most patient person I have ever met.”

Marinette turned to open the door but was stopped by Adrien’s hand wrapping around her arm. “Mari, wait.”

He felt her sigh under his hand then she closed her eyes as she whispered “yeah.”

“You never answered my question, why were you so skittish around me? If it wasn’t because of something I did, then what was it?” his voice was soft, nothing demanding. His grip on her arm was loose, he made sure that if she wanted to leave that she could, with no difficulty. 

She turned back towards him but this time their eyes met, “That is a very long story, one that is very hard to explain. One that I don’t particularly want to explain. Maybe I’ll tell you one day but I’m not ready yet, I hope you understand.”

He broke eye contact with her to stare at the floor, “Of course I understand, you don’t have to explain anything to me if you don’t want to. Just know that when or if you decide to tell me that I won’t judge you and that you can tell me anything.”

“Thank you, Adrien. That means a lot to me. Oh, I almost forgot, I should probably give you my number so we can meet up to talk to Aimée. Can I have your phone?”

Adrien nodded, “Sure.”

He handed over his phone then she typed her number into his phone.

“There, now you can message me any time.” She said, handing back the phone. 

Then she was gone, closing the door behind her without saying another word. Adrien would have thought that driving Marinette home and actually talking to her would have helped clear things up between them, but all it did was create more unanswered questions. _What could be so embarrassing that she wasn’t able to tell me, even after so many years later?_

The more time he spent with her, the more he wanted to know. This wasn’t exactly a new thing either, It was like that in school too. He would find every excuse to want to be around her and to be honest, who wouldn’t? Well except for Lila, she was a completely different story. 

Eventually, after standing at a closed-door for two minutes, Adrien got back into his car, then drove away. Thoughts still filled with the bluenette, but of course… friends think about each other all the time, don’t they?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I can't believe this story has almost 1000 hits! That's crazy considering it's my first fic, thank you guys so much. I'm glad I had a bit of time to get another chapter out before my exams which start next week and last a month so I probably won't be posting another chapter until the end of November early December, sorry about that. Hopefully, this slightly longer chapter will tie you over until then.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien and Mari make plans and have a meaningful conversation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am so sorry for disappearing for, what has it been? 3 months I think. It has been a crazy few months but I am back! I am sorry If this chapter isn't as good as previous chapters as I have been away for a while. More about that at the end.
> 
> Also, thank you Khanofallorcs for beta reading again!

With a groan, Plagg awoke to a loud crash coming from the kitchen. 

Wiping his paws over his eyes in frustration, Plagg flew out of Adrien’s laundry basket while muttering curses. 

_I know that seeing his father, reuniting with Ladybug, seeing his friends again and then the whole baker girl situation all in the same week has been hard for Adrien. That doesn’t give him the right to wake me up, though. I mean, have some human decency or whatever the hell that is and let me sleep! He isn’t the only one living in this apartment, ya know._

He phased through the door, only to come face to face with the last thing he thought his chosen would be doing: cooking.

Adrien was rushing around the kitchen, covered in flour with batter up the walls and a sink full of dishes which was so full that it looked like it could come tumbling over any minute. There was a pot of boiling water on the stove and a pan with what looked like burning coal, creating thick smoke. It was safe to say that a fire had probably started; it was a wonder the smoke alarm hadn’t gone off. 

“Kid, what happened here?” Plagg questioned; even the God of Destruction was shocked at the state of the room.

Adrien jumped, not having noticed Plagg, then rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly. 

“Ahhh,” he drew out, “I couldn’t sleep… and I read that cooking can help clear your thoughts so I um,… ya know,” he gestured around the kitchen. 

In truth, ever since he got home last night he had kept staring at the ceiling thinking and overthinking every conversation he had ever had with Marinette. 

It frustrated him, not knowing what he did wrong and what he could do to fix their friendship. What could be so terribly embarrassing that she wouldn’t even tell him years later? Unless he actually had done something and she didn’t tell him to spare _him_ the embarrassment. After a long debate with himself he ultimately decided that wasn’t something she would do, Marinette hates lying. 

As the hours ticked by, he could feel himself panicking. He was never going to fall asleep at this rate. 

“You know what? Fuck this” He huffed, then leaned over to grab his phone off the nightstand. He did a quick google search for ‘ways to help clear your mind for sleep’ and scroll down a short list. 

  * Read
  * Meditate
  * Take a bath/shower
  * Listen to calm music
  * Bake



He tried reading but, once again, thoughts of today’s events and of Marinette kept him from concentrating on what he was reading. He ended up having to go back a few paragraphs to reread the parts he had skimmed. By the time he had reread the same paragraph 3 times without absorbing anything from it, he gave up and put the book down.

Meditation wasn’t useful; he never had been one to stay still for extended periods of time trying not to think. Again, his brain was louder than the guy talking in the video. 

He tried everything on that list, but nothing worked. At last, he came to the last thing on the list… cooking.

Oh sure, it started out great. He wanted to cook something sweet, especially if he was going to see Marinette and the lawyer tomorrow. He wanted to bring a thank you, for both of their help. He also tried cooking a savoury dish, one he could have for dinner in case he was out late tonight. 

It was safe to say it didn’t turn out very well.

That was when Plagg had found him. It definitely was not pretty and was sure as hell embarrassing. 

Adrien watched as his Kwami’s cheeks began to fill with air and tears began to spring from his eyes from amusement.

“Don’t you do it,” Adrien warned, pointing his finger at the little god. “I’m warning you, Plagg”

He couldn’t help himself, couldn’t hold it in anymore. Plagg flew to the bench, unable to levitate anymore then he rolled over and started to pound his fist on the marble while laughing so hard that he was crying. 

It was honestly one of the funniest things he had seen and that was coming from a god who had seen the original Shakespearean plays when he had a holder in England. Some people just did not appreciate good comedy, even if it smacked them over the head like a wheel of cheese. 

“Ok, ok, I get it. I fucked up, happy now?” Adrien whined. 

When Plagg was finally able to calm down he said, “not,” wheeze, “even,” wheeze, “close.”

“Fine,” the blonde huffed. He then walked over to the fridge and pulled out a large wheel of camembert, “will this shut you up?”

Plagg halted all laughing and joking once he smelt the divine aroma of his favourite cheese, one that he hasn’t smelt in so long. Adrien had been on a tight budget for the last year, having been cut off from most of his savings because of his douchebag father changing the inheritance age to 21. He had set up a small bank account for emergencies that he had continuously put in around 50€ a week for 3 years, in case he ever found himself in a situation exactly like this. Travel, food, housing and necessities deplenished these savings quite quickly, though, so he needed to find a way to pay for things without staying in one place for too long. 

He ended up buying a keyboard with whatever money he had left and performed on the streets. He was actually good at it, too, and before long, small crowds would form wherever he played. 

Plagg knew how precious this gift was; he wondered how long Adrien had been saving it and was glad that he lucked out in the Chosen department. 

“Oh sweet delectable camembert, how I have missed your heavenly taste and aroma,” Plagg swooned. He then turned back to Adrien and said, “I’ll let it go, for now. Only because I need time to truly savour this.” He held up the cheese in his tiny paws as if presenting a masterpiece or crown jewel. “Although, it won't stop me asking what the hell happened and why you trashed the kitchen.” He paused for a minute then added, “oh and by the way, kid, you look like hell.”

“Thanks, as if I didn’t already know that. I couldn’t sleep cause I was up all night thinking.”

“I know I’m gonna regret this, but what were you thinking about?”

Then it was like Plagg had opened the floodgates and words flew out of Adrien’s mouth before he could even process them himself. “Did you know that Marinette is still a designer? I bet the dress she wore was handmade, too. She looked so beautiful.” Adrien gushed. 

“Here we go again,” Plagg muttered, “what did I do to deserve this?” _The kid’s eyes practically turn into hearts whenever the baker girl is even mentioned, oh if only he knew._

“She’s going to help me out with my father, can you believe that? It’s so incredible how she always goes out of her way to help people, but I don’t get why she is helping me when she doesn’t even like me.”

“Oh for the love of all things destructive, Adrien, stop. She does like you and you’ve got to be really thickheaded not to see that.”

“Of course she doesn’t like me, Plagg, you heard her, she doesn’t even want to be in the same room as me.” Adrien rolled his eyes.

“Whatever you say, kid.” Though Plagg knew better. “Weren’t you meant to call her, ya know, about Aimée?”

“I don’t know what to say. Do I call or text her? Do I wait for her to call or text seeing as she’s the one who gave me her number? Or should it be the other way around, that I should call or text her first? It’s also too early in the morning, she’s probably not even awake yet. I wouldn’t want to wake her up.”

Plagg threw his head back in frustration then groaned. “Why do you do this to yourself, and me? Just call her! If she doesn’t answer then she’ll probably just call you back once she wakes up. Anyone would think you were in love with her.” Plagg smirked at that, knowing that if that wasn’t the case now, that it sure as hell would be soon enough. He couldn’t wait for this torture to be over with. 

Adrien went back into his room and grabbed his phone from his bedside table. When he came back out, Plagg was eating his wheel of camembert. 

“I think I should probably wait, at least for an hour or so. It’ll give her some extra time to wake up or to make the first move and call me.” He then placed his phone on the kitchen bench. 

“You know what, kid?” Plagg said, then dived for Adrien’s phone. “If you won’t call her, then I will, just to get this over with.”

Adrien’s eyes widened and went to snatch the phone back but missed as Plagg flew up out of reach. 

“Plagg!” He shouted while jumping, trying to reach out to grab the little god but Plagg just put the phone onto speaker as it started to ring. One ring, two rings and on the third ring he heard a melodious voice answer. One that made him freeze in place out of horror. 

“Hello?” She said, “Adrien?”

Plagg found it hard not to laugh at Adrien's stunned expression then flew down to put the phone back on the bench. Adrien realised that a drawn-out silence ensued and that broke him out of shock. He couldn’t exactly hang up and pretend he didn’t call… well he could but that's not something he would do.

“Hey, Marinette. I- I hope I didn’t wake you.” He tried not to stutter over his words then shot Plagg an annoyed glare when he grinned.

“Nope, I’ve been awake since 7. What’s up?” She inquired.

“Oh, I’m just calling to see if we are still going to go see Aimée today.” He could see Plagg roll his eyes, trying to convey his unspoken words that went a little like ‘ _she already told you she would go with you, no need to keep checking to make sure.’_

_‘Shut up, Plagg, what do you know,’_ he mentally sassed back. 

“Of course, I’ve just got to message her to see when she is available. How about I call you back once I have talked to her?” her honey-toned voice chimed out. 

“That sounds great, I’ll talk to you then.” 

He then hung up the phone after they said their goodbyes with the promise to call later. 

“See, that wasn’t so bad, was it? I am always right. You owe me extra cheese for the week after what I just pulled off for you; you’re welcome, by the way.” Plagg preened like the black cat he was.

Adrien just shook his head at the Kwami’s antics. “Fine, let me have breakfast then go get changed and we’ll head to the shops. Does that sound good to you?”

Plagg threw his head back and let out a drawn-out whine, “but I want to go now” drawing out the now.

“Well, I can’t go out looking like this. So I guess you're just going to have to wait.” 

Plagg huffed, then flew away, into Adrien’s laundry basket.

“I swear, one of these days I’m not gonna put up with his crap.” Adrien murmured as he started getting out breakfast.

“I heard that.”

“Of course you did.”

* * *

Tikki flittered over to where a certain bluenette was sorting out measurements for the showcase dress. “Marinette, aren't you going to message Adrien like you said you would?” 

She just shook her head. “No way, Tikki, I gave him my number so he has to be the one to reach out to me. I’ll talk to him once that happens.” 

It must have been really coincidental, or that he somehow knew they were talking about him because her phone buzzed. Once, twice then she quickly snatched it up from on her desk. 

“Oh god, Tikki, he’s calling me.” Marinette panicked and just as she was about to ask Kwami what to do, the ringing stopped. She let out a quiet breath, thinking that the call had ended when she looked down and his profile picture was still displayed while the call timer was counting up. She had accidentally accepted the call. 

Internally screaming and lecturing herself she raised the phone to her ear, trying to muster up all the courage she could. 

“Hello?” she squeaked, “Adrien?” she questioned and immediately berated herself. Of course it was Adrien, it was his number. Who else would be calling from his number, right? Right?

When he answered, she almost giggled. He had stuttered; cool, calm and collected Adrien had stuttered. She didn’t know why she had been so nervous to call him before, or to answer his call. They had made plans to go see Aimée today so that was exactly what they were going to do and she was going to help her friend out in whatever way she could. 

One problem, though; she had forgotten to message the lawyer. So with a promise to call him back, she immediately opened up her messages to Alya and clicked on the number her best friend had sent her. 

“Hello, this is Aimée, how can I help you?” 

“Hi, this is Marinette. Alya’s friend” Marinette greeted. 

“Oh, hi, Marinette! Is there anything I can help you with?”

“Actually, I was wondering if I could book an appointment with you for a friend of mine for either today or early tomorrow. It’s kind of urgent, so anything you could do to squeeze us in would be incredible.” 

“Of course, I can have a look. What is the appointment for?”

“Well, he has had some trouble with employment contracts before and has been taken advantage of before. He just got offered a job and I recommended that he speak to a lawyer, just to go over the contract and see if there is anything that he should be worried about and wants to be changed. The employer wants an answer by tomorrow afternoon”

“Well, it doesn’t look like I have any appointments available. I’m pretty booked out at the moment and the waiting list goes on for about a month. But seeing as it’s only looking at a contract and you're a friend of Alya’s, I’d be happy to take a look at it once my firm closes this afternoon. I close up at 6 and just to warn you that it’s still going to cost 219€ for me to look at it,” Aimée explained.

“That’s fine, thank you so much for helping us. We’ll be there at 6.”

“You’re welcome, see you then.” 

Marinette let out the breath she was holding as soon as the call ended. Relieved that she was able to do this for her friend. Now all she had to do was call him back. 

She went to the recent calls list in her phone and redialed the first number. 

“Hey, Mari.” was what greeted her when the call was answered. The background was echoey and Adrien’s voice was kind of hard to hear.

“Hey, I just got off the phone with Aimée and she said we can come to the firm at 6 tonight and she’ll take a look at it.” Marinette was happy that she had good news to tell him. If Aimée hadn't been available, she would have looked at the contract herself, but it wouldn’t have been as thorough as what a lawyer would be. Her legal knowledge was very limited. 

“Oh my gosh, thank you, Marinette! You have no idea how much this means to me,” he exclaimed. His excitement practically vibrated through the phone like jolts of electricity. 

“It’s ok, I’m glad I could help. You’re my friend; the last thing I want is for you to be controlled by your father for the rest of your life… I’m sorry- I- I probably should- I mean shouldn’t- have said that. Your relationships- relationship with your father is none of my business.” Damn it, she was doing so well and she had to go and ruin it. 

“No, you’re right. The whole reason I asked for help with this is because I don’t want to be controlled by him anymore. A job is a job, but that doesn’t mean I want to go back to how it was before, with him controlling every aspect of my life. I want to go to university, spend time with whoever I want to, while also being financially stable. I want to eventually start a family with someone special- definitely not in the near future- but someday. I won't be able to do any of that if I have to constantly worry about losing my job if my father is having one of his off days or I'm not doing exactly what he wants, how he wants.” She couldn’t believe how much he had matured in the last year, how he had gained his voice and was able to stick up for himself. 

“You know, I’m really proud of you, Adrien,” she mused. “You are an amazing person and it always made me sick to see how you were treated. You have always had a kind heart and being cooped up in that mansion, barely able to see anyone and having your father dictate everything in your life was horrible to watch. I wish I could have done something to help you back then, but the least I can do is help now.”

She spoke from her heart, not being able to fully confess the extent of her feelings and why she had overlooked how unhappy he was for all those years. Her feelings for him blinded her and caused her to go crazy; she would never forgive herself for not being a better friend to him. Now that she had gotten over her crazy fangirl crush, she was able to see him clearly. Or at least try to get to know him better without the ray of sunshine blinding her to what was right in front of her. 

From the other side of the phone, she heard Adrien sniff. Oh god, she didn’t mean to make him cry!

“For the record,” _sniff_ , “You are an amazing person too, Mari,” _sniff, sniff._ “You don’t know how much you, Alya and Nino all changed my life when I moved to Collège Françoise Dupont. My life wasn’t all bad because whenever I went to school, when my father was in a good mood or sometimes I would sneak out. The best moments of those few years were when I was with you guys. You all mean so much to me, because even though you seemed so nervous whenever I was around, at least you were there supporting me. You mean the world to me, Mari, and I’m so sorry I lost touch with you in the last year and lost sight of that friendship.”

Her cheeks went red at the same time as tears welled in her eyes. Now she was going to cry! She couldn’t believe that she, little ol’ Marinette meant so much to him. If she didn’t feel like a jerk before, she sure as hell felt like a bigger jerk now for treating him the way she did through school. 

Maybe turning over a new leaf was exactly what they both needed, starting fresh while also holding onto the good memories they both shared. 

Before she could reply to his rant about how wonderful she was, he cut in again. “Ok, I should probably go. I’m actually shopping at the moment and I’m afraid I’m about to break down sobbing in a minute in front of everyone. I’ll talk to you tonight.” 

At the mention of where he was, her ears automatically zoned in on the soft music and chatter of people in the call. So _that_ was where he was!

“That’s ok, I’ll see you tonight then. Oh and, Adrien?”

“Yeah?” he asked, with a questioning lilt to his voice.

“Thank you for saying those kind things. You also mean the world to me and I’m also sorry for losing sight of that.”

“You’re welcome” he breathed and then the call ended.

It wasn't even a minute later that her phone chimed with a message. It was giff from Adrien of a bear winking with ['You are the beary best'](https://tenor.com/view/you-are-the-beary-best-beary-best-bear-love-gif-12870822) surrounding it. He also sent her a message attached to it stating **" _And don't you furrrget it."_** She giggled and shook her head, reminded of another blonde dork with a finity for puns only dressed in black leather. 

Pushing aside those thoughts, she continued her sewing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Again, sorry for disappearing. After graduating I had a severe lack of motivation to do anything but sleep and barely to go work. I then went away with friends for a week and had to recuperate then when I got home I went away with my family, which I also had to recuperate from. I was then grounded for reasons that are... unfair which lasted a month. I am starting uni in about a month and I am finally going to have time to write in between workload when previously I was working even in between things. Thank you for baring with me and I hope you enjoyed the chapter!


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adrien gets the contract looked at, with the support of Marinette, but it's not all smooth sailings for our two favourite heroes. Adrien then tries to repay Marinette for her kindness by asking her on a date... or not?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you again to Khanofallorcs for beta reading.

“Hey, Kid?” 

“Yeah, Plagg?” 

“Shouldn’t you be leaving to meet your girlfriend now?”

“Shit!"

Adrien had been completely consumed by social media, scrolling through and updating himself on the lives of the friends he had dearly missed. He kept up to date with Nino's account, it being the only one he had followed, but both Alya’s and Marinette's (as well as the rest of his class’) lives for the past year were a mystery to him. 

There were a few things on Alya’s page that were new, but not much: a few photos advertising articles she had written, some new pictures of Ladybug that he had never seen before, some selfies, pictures of her and Nino, pictures of her and Marinette then ones with all three of them. It was bittersweet that they had all gotten on with their lives without him.

He scrolled through the rest of his class, following and liking posts of theirs, but then he came upon Marinette's profile. There were a lot of design photos, not really anything about where she worked, but personal designs that she must have been proud or fond of. There were also a few photos of Alya and Nino, but as he scrolled down to a few months earlier he noticed more and more photos of her with Luka. There was even a sweet one of them kissing, which for some reason made his stomach twist in an uncomfortable knot. 

No one had told him they were dating. 

The logical side of his brain tried to reason that he had never asked them, that it was none of his business, that they may not even be dating anymore and that it was weird that he even cared. He couldn’t shake that pit in his stomach, though, which he also didn’t understand why he felt that way at all. He shouldn’t feel that way; after all, they were just friends and he was lucky to even be considered that. He was lucky that she didn’t hate him anymore and could at least tolerate talking to him and helping him out. 

When Plagg spoke, it made him snap out of the daze he was in. He needed to get ready, and quickly. So what if Marinette was dating Luka, he certainly couldn’t care less. He was honestly happy that she was with someone who obviously cared for her from what he could tell when they were in school and she deserved someone who would treat her like the princess she is. 

So, yet again, Adrien rushed around the room finding his clothes for the day. He settled on a white button-up shirt and a pair of black jeans with black leather shoes; somewhat formal without going overboard with a suit. After all, he was meeting a lawyer and needed to dress for a business casual meeting. 

After wasting time looking at social media for over an hour, he didn’t have enough time to catch a bus or drive his car.

Into the open space of his living room, he called for his transformation with a “Plagg, Claws Out!” as Plagg got sucked into his ring and the green energy washed over him.

He walked over to the table where the contract was sitting and scooped it up, careful not to tear it with his claws, then neatly tucked it into a folder he found in his desk drawer. The cat superhero then slowly opened his balcony door and climbed the fire escape up onto the roof. He was always careful not to jump off of his balcony first, as people might notice and connect the dots which was why he always went onto the roof first. That way, if anyone noticed, it would look like just another rooftop that he regularly stopped at. 

He jumped from rooftop to rooftop with ease, using his silver baton to propel himself forward as Chat Noir landed in a narrow alleyway across the street from the law firm with two minutes to spare. 

He let the transformation drop with a whispered ‘claws in’ as not to draw attention to himself then headed over to cross the street where a certain bluenette was waiting for him. 

She waved when she saw him approach and he couldn’t help but admire her once he got close enough to clearly see her. She had on a tight, knee-length dress that was white and had black stripes running down the sides that made her look taller, and black heels that were just tall enough for her not to be in danger of tripping. Her hair was tied back in a tight ballerina bun and the same heart pendant from last night hung from her neck. 

She had an elegance about her, beautiful yet he knew she had a deadly fire inside of her. One that would burn anyone that came close and threatened to harm the things she cared about. Or whenever she got competitive… or angry.

As he came closer, her smile made him dizzy and butterflies formed in his stomach.  _ What is happening to me, _ he thought, but no answer came. 

She began to walk towards him, meeting in the middle and wrapped her arms around his neck in a tight hug. 

“It’s good to see you,” she said. He chuckled at that and returned the gesture. 

“It’s good to see you too, but you know? I only saw you yesterday and we talked this morning. Thanks for that, by the way, I ended up crying in the shopping centre.” he pouted, trying to hide his mirth. 

She smiled with a cheeky grin “what?, can’t handle a taste of your own medicine, Agreste” she giggled. 

“Pa-lease, I was going easy on you, Dupain-Cheng. If I really wanted to list all the things I like about you and gush about how amazing you are we would be here for hours.” He grinned back at her and watched as her face turned crimson, she looked like a tomato. Ha! That would teach her to challenge him at being the best compliment giver. 

_ Hold on a minute, we both sound ridiculous. What am I even doing? And why am I so close to her face?  _ They were practically nose to nose, only an inch apart. He shook his head to try and break the competitive tension between them, and took a step back.  _ Well, she does look adorable when she is being cheeky. Wait, is she mad?  _ He looked back at her and the fire he had mentioned lit up her eyes like fireworks. 

“What's wrong?”  _ great, what did you do now jackass? _

She seemed to be having an internal battle with herself then huffed “nothing” and began walking to the doors marked ‘entry.’ He was so confused, it was like there was some sort of lever that controlled her emotions and he had pulled it. 

“Where are you going?” he called out. She must have heard him because she swung back around to face him.

“Are you coming or what? Aimée isn’t going to wait forever and we’re already late” she then turned back around and headed inside without him.

When her words finally caught up with him, he ran after her and stopped at the elevator where she was waiting. The designer had her arms crossed and brows furrowed.

He knew he should let it go, should let her cool off, but he was getting tired of her getting angry at him then bottling it up. If she didn’t tell him what was wrong then he had no way of apologising or fixing it. 

He turned to face her then began. “You know what, Mari? You are one of my best friends but you are also exhausting. One minute we are joking around and laughing then the next you get angry and storm off. Maybe if you told me what I did or what was wrong then I would have the opportunity to fix it but you always choose to bottle it up. Friends open up to one another and talk to each other, if any of the things you said this morning are true then it means you want to be my friend. I can be patient with you, but not when you continuously do this.”

He began to see her soften, uncrossing her arms and relax slightly. Well, at least she didn’t seem angry at him anymore. 

The elevator dinged then opened in front of them and they both stepped in. They were almost to their floor when she said “fine, I’ll tell you what's wrong” she sighed, “It has something to do with what I was talking about last night, so I don’t want to tell you everything. We are almost to Aimée’s office, so I'll tell you as much as I can after, ok?”

“That’s fine,” he nodded, satisfied for now. He knew he would bring it up again later, because she would definitely ‘forget’ about it, but he needed answers. Not half-baked excuses. 

They both exited the elevator and walked up to the door that said ‘Aimée’ on it then Marinette reached out to knock on the door. 

A tall woman with wavy black hair opened the door. She was dressed in a white blouse that was tucked into a black pencil skirt and a belt adorned with a small silver buckle wrapped around her waist. She had black pumps on and the only jewellery she wore was small silver drops hanging from her ears. She radiated confidence, but at the same time, kindness. 

“Oh, hi, you must be Marinette. I’m Aimée, Alya’s friend.” Aimée greeted them and Marinette reached out to shake the lawyer's hand.

“It’s nice to meet you, Aimée,” Marinette said, returning the greeting. She then turned towards Adrien and their eyes met, he swore he could get lost in those ocean-deep eyes. “This is Adrien Agreste,” she said then turned back to face the lawyer. Her gaze only lasted a few seconds, but it was enough to freeze him in place.

“Yes, of course, you must be the one Marinette was talking about. It is nice to meet you.” Aimée extended her hand to greet him as well and the spell he was under broke just enough to respond in kind. 

Satisfied with his distracted greeting, she addressed both of them. “Ok, you two, it's nice to meet you, Adrien, and if you both would follow me inside, we can get started.” Then headed back inside her office. 

They eventually followed her and took the seats beside each other to face Aimée. Adrien took the contract out of its folder then placed it in front of Aimée on the desk. She grabbed it then started to read, flipping through each page then making notes on her pad.

“Ok, so from what I can gather, your father has proposed that you work for him again for three days a week. He has listed some of your responsibilities, including: attending important company meetings, shadowing employees, occasional modelling for events and photoshoots, overseeing the business side of the  _ ‘Gabriel’ _ brand and attending major events as an ambassador.” Adrien nodded at the list of duties he would be expected to perform; it was pretty standard and basically what his father had told him. 

“Now it says here, you will receive 55,400€ a year as salary but will fluctuate if hours are increased or decreased because of circumstances and there is the opportunity for an increase in salary later on. Is that ok?”

He nodded again “Yeah that's fine, I was actually expecting less, seeing as it’s only 3 days a week.” 

“Ok, well, the contract also states that overtime will be time and a half. Everything else is standard; nine to five for 3 days a week, 10 days paid sick leave and 2 weeks paid vacation will be available as a part-time worker, health insurance will be available and some other benefits that are all standard as well.” she flipped to another page and her brow creased in confusion. 

“There is another section that states that he will be paying for a university course of your choosing, is that correct?”

“That is what he said,” Adrien confirmed, “he told me he would pay it for as long as I work for him and learn to run the company so that, if I choose to, I could inherit  _ Gabriel _ once he is ready to retire.”

“Well, he has stated a few conditions: one being that on top of your own course, you must choose a business course to at least minor in and that the courses will be paid off on a year by year basis. That being said, if you leave the company or he lets you go, the remaining fees will need to be paid by you.”

Adrien paled, shocked at what he had just heard. He couldn’t believe, scratch that, he  _ most definitely _ could believe that his father would try to trap him like that. It was completely unfair that his father treated him like shit and like he didn’t exist for almost 10 years of his life and now the bastard was trying to trap him.  _ Again! _

He stood up, furious and wanting to smash something. Preferably his father’s face.

It made him even angrier when he realised that if he had never gotten the contract looked at, then he never would have known until it was too late that he had walked into a trap. 

His anger subsided slightly when he felt a warm hand being placed on his arm, trying to calm him down. He turned to see Marinette, eyes shining with unabated concern and her hand soothingly stroking his arm. 

“You're ok, remember what I said?” she asked, almost a whisper and it was like she had created a bubble around them. He shook his head, only now registering what she had said. 

She smiled, “Yesterday, I said that if there was anything that didn’t sit well with you that you could go and see your father tomorrow to demand that it be rewritten.” her smile grew wider, turning into a smirk and her eyes crinkled with mirth. She smiled even before she made a joke and it was adorable. “Ya know, I could go and give him a piece of my mind. I’m sure I could get him to add whatever you want to that contract without even breaking a sweat.”

“Now that’s a scary thought” He laughed at the thought of her going toe to toe with his father. “I know he is scared of you, do you remember the last time you confronted him? He looked so mad, but somehow he actually did what you said… well more like demanded.”

Her eyes widened at the memory, she knew what he was talking about. 

* * *

“Um… I don’t know what you're talking about.” Well actually, she  _ did  _ but she didn’t want to tell him that. 

He tilted his head; he obviously knew she was lying.

“Marinette, I know you remember, so why are you lying?” he said.

She couldn’t tell him. It would lead to him finding out that she worked for Gabriel and she wasn’t ready to tell him. Not when their friendship was only beginning and with him angry at his father; she didn’t know how he would react. 

He sighed when there was no answer and turned back to Aimée, who was watching them with amusement. 

“Aimée, I’m worried he might try to control me with this contract. That he might use it to blackmail me into doing whatever he says; is there anything that could be written to stop him from doing that?” She was glad he had brought that up, it was one of the main reasons why he was so sceptical of the contract to begin with, which was understandable considering Gabriel’s past. 

Aimée nodded, then thought for a moment or two before saying “you could add-in that you must be treated fairly, like any other employee at the company and that you have the right to turn down a task if it is outside the parameters of the contract. It means that if he asks you to work on a day that isn’t your normal work hours, you have the right to turn him down or if it doesn’t have anything to do with the business itself, or if it makes you uncomfortable, etcetera.” 

“Does that include working with coworkers who make me uncomfortable, like models during photoshoots? He has a habit of not caring if I’m uncomfortable with someone, so long as he gets the results he wants.”

“Adrien, that should never have happened. It is a legal issue, it’s classed as harassment if a coworker is doing that to you. It should have been taken up with Human Resources, then maybe reported to the police. Your father should not have turned a blind eye to that sort of thing; it’s even worse that he was your father and didn’t care.” 

Marinette knew that Aimée meant well, but Alya, Nino and she had all tried to tell him this, to report what his father was doing. They had tried to convince him when he was younger, but Adrien had such strong family values that he felt guilty for even thinking about leaving his father. Then, one day he called Nino, not telling him why, but asking to stay a few nights before catching a plane the week after. No one knew what had pushed him over the edge, but Marinette knew a part of him had acknowledged that being treated the way he had been was not ok or normal. By that point, they had all graduated and she had accepted the apprenticeship Gabriel had offered her. 

“I know,” Adrien grimaced, “which is why I don’t want it to happen again. So can you include all of that in the new contract? I’m fine with studying a business course as it might help me if i choose to inherit  _ Gabriel _ but I'm not ok with him dumping the costs onto me if I fail to live up to his expectations so can that be added in too?”

“Of course, I can have it typed up by midday tomorrow. It will take about half an hour to go back through it with you to make sure all the changes are correct, or if tonight you think of anything I can add.”

“Thank you so much, you don’t know how much of a relief this is!”

“You’re welcome.” 

They all stood up and shook hands, then the two heroes left the office and headed out of the building. 

Adrien grabbed Marinette's hand as she was about to walk away, trying to get her attention. “Hey, I want to thank you again for this and I’m sorry I’ve been so pushy today, but after not speaking to you and the group for so long, I kind of feel like an outsider at the moment.” 

She looked up at him and gave him a soft look, an affectionate look. “You will always be a part of our group. It wasn’t the same without you while you were gone, and I'm sorry if we have made you feel that way. You also don’t need to keep thanking me for helping you, I’m always happy to help,” she assured him. 

He stayed silent for a bit, thinking. She saw the moment an idea struck, eyes lighting up like a Christmas tree and he almost jumped for joy at whatever he had come up with. 

“To make it up to you, I am inviting you to dinner. It’s already 7, and we need to eat, so why don’t we go, get takeout, then go back to my place and watch a movie or something? Whatever you want to do is fine, but I really want to make it up to you.” He looked so excited that she couldn’t in her right mind turn him down. But at the same time, it kind of sounded like he was asking her on a date. At that thought, she made a mortifying squeak, not unlike a mouse and her cheeks flamed. 

“Um.. are you... D.. did.. You just.” She couldn’t say it. She didn’t even know if she wanted it to be a date or not, considering she had tried so hard to get over him. 

He looked at her, brows crinkled and thoroughly confused, “did I just what?”

She took a deep breath to bury her internal scream, “Did you just… just um… ask me out?”

* * *

The realisation of what it must have sounded to her hit him harder than Ladybug flinging him off of a building. Did he just ask Marinette out? Sure, he wouldn’t mind going on a date with her, but it wouldn’t be fair since he didn’t see her that way. It would feel like he was leading her on, and let's be honest, there was no way she had any romantic feelings for him. She had hated him before yesterday! Now she probably only barely thought of him as a friend, let alone something more. 

“Ohhh,” he played it off, trying to make it sound like he had no idea that he had accidentally asked her out. Which, two minutes ago, he hadn’t. “I’m so sorry, that sounded really bad and I hope I didn’t make you uncomfortable. I just meant as friends, of course, since we both don’t even like each other romantically.” He tried to laugh at that, but it turned out to be a little bit too hard to be believable. 

“No, of course not, that would be ridiculous.” she laughed too. What he didn’t notice was the slightly disappointed look she gave when he wasn't looking. 

“I would be happy to go on a ‘friend date’ with you. Which car are we going to take?” She questioned. 

“You don’t have to worry about that, I took the bus and left my car at home so we can take yours.”

He shined a megawatt smile at her then bowed, “well, Princess, your carriage awaits.” He stopped mid-bow when he noticed what he had done. She paused for a moment, eyes squinting, but not quite fitting the puzzle pieces together. Then when she failed to put two and two together, she decided to play along. 

“Why, thank you, my prince!” Marinette curtsied and giggled, which made his heart stutter. 

Let's just say that from that moment on Adrien Agreste had to chant ‘she’s just a friend’ over and over again in his head until it sunk in, or until Marinette abruptly ran out of his apartment that night. Whichever came first. 

But more about that next chapter. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Full disclosure, I know nothing about law and contracts etc. just the minimal amount of research that I did for this chapter and general knowledge so some of it is probably incorrect.  
> On that note, I'm glad I got a chapter out today and I forgot to mention last chapter that I got a new laptop which is why I am able to start writing again. I gave up on writing on my phone, It was painful. I also start uni next week but I'll still be writing in between work and classes.  
> The next thing I wanted to mention was that I listened to a song by one of my favourite artists and realised that the song is quite similar to this fic so I've taken some inspiration from it to create some future scenes. I'm not going to mention what the song is but I will leave clues in the notes of some chapters as well as whatever the chapter offers as a clue and you guys can guess in the comments!


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